The CARe project (Capacity Building in Applied Public Health Research in GHPP partner countries) has continued its training program on applied public health research methods with a second face-to-face workshop seven months after the initial workshop in Namibia. The workshop took place from June 10 to June 14, 2024 in Windhoek, Namibia.

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Joint training for joint deployments - under this theme, the second joint exercise of the German Emergency Medical Teams (EMT) took place in the Ahr Valley from 29 May to 2 June. The EMTs from Arbeiter-Samariter-Bund (ASB), CADUS e.V., humedica and Johanniter trained for humanitarian deployments, supported by staff from RKI’s Centre for International Health Protection (ZIG) and other partner organisations. The scenario: many dead and injured due to an earthquake in the fictitious state of "Rhinepfals". The healthcare system is overwhelmed and the country requests support from the World Health Organization (WHO) via the WHO EMT Initiative. Several EMTs travel in to provide medical assistance to the affected population. An EMT Coordination Cell is installed in the country for effective coordination of the support. When the first cases of cholera occur, a mobile laboratory and an IPC-Team (Infection Prevention and Control) are also mobilised.

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On 18 -22 September, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) hosted the first “GOARN Outbreak Response Leadership Training Programme” of the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) in Berlin, in collaboration with GOARN Secretariat and the Geneva Center for Security Policy (GCSP). A total of 24 public health experts from a multidisciplinary array of GOARN partner institutions across WHO’s six regions – all of whom are highly experienced outbreak responders – participated in this flagship program.

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As part of a 14-month project, the RKI is participating in an initiative that advocates an integrated approach to the early detection of potential disease outbreaks in Africa. The Centre for International Health Protection supports Morocco, Namibia, South Africa and Tunisia in the areas of “Epidemic Intelligence” and “Genomic Surveillance”.

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The Scientific Advisory Board of RKI’s Centre for International Health Protection met in Berlin in April 2024. The board is chaired by the Belgian microbiologist Peter Piot who is known as the co-discoverer of the Ebola virus, founding director of UNAIDS and Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations.

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On 10 April 2024, the Robert Koch Institute hosted the second Steering Committee meeting of the ongoing partnership with the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence in Berlin. The primary objective of this meeting was to review and discuss the progress across the four projects under the partnership.

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Funded by the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence in Berlin, the project “Strengthen Integrated Genomic Surveillance through Greater Capacities in Nati­onal Public Health Institutes” is set to improve public health decision-making on both national and international levels. In February 2024, researchers from the Centre for International Health Protection at the RKI joined forces with the Ivorian National Institute for Public Hygiene to gather representatives from Ivorian and international research institutions and stakeholders across the human, ani­mal, and One Health sectors in Côte d’Ivoire.

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In early December 2023, the in­ter­dis­ci­pli­nary consor­tium met in Nigeria for the im­ple­men­ta­tion of the first project milestone: the entry into a local community. The community was introduced to the project through printed fliers accompanied by verbal explanations by team members at the local markets as key locations of the community.

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The an­thro­po­lo­gy team at RKI’s Centre for In­ter­na­tio­nal Health Pro­tec­tion conducts research on infection prevention and control in several projects of the Global Health Protection Programme. A member of ZIG’s an­thro­po­lo­gy team spent three months in Guinea and Côte d'Ivoire for ethnographic fieldwork in partner hospitals in autumn 2023, where he studied social settings and medical procedures before, during and after caesarean sections amongst other things.

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From 28 to 30 No­vem­ber 2023, re­pre­sen­ta­tives of the Ger­man re­lief or­ga­ni­sa­tion Mal­te­ser International and the Ugandan Ministry of Health met for a work­shop in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. The aim of the meeting was to jointly create an activity plan in support of the development of a national Emergency Medical Team by the Ugandan Ministry of Health.

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The Namibian Ministry of Health and Social Services and RKI have maintained a close and trusting cooperation since the successful start of the Namibia-RKI Twinning Project in 2020. A delegation from Namibia came to Berlin in order to establish contacts and networks, exchange experiences and learn more about national public health institutes such as the RKI.

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In November 2023, a two-day workshop was organised in An­ta­na­na­rivo, Ma­da­gas­car with the Minister of Health and other stakeholders to disseminate the results of the first year of the ABCM project and initiate a policy dialogue. Public health emergency management, surveillance capacities and the establishment of a national reference laboratory were seen to have particularly benefited and improved from the COVID-19 pandemic context.

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In December 2023, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and the Robert Koch Institute hosted the inaugural conference of PALS in Nigeria’s capital Abuja. PALS stands for “Participatory Approach to Learning in Systems” which is a training and practice approach for sustainable improvement in infection prevention and control.

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At the third “In­ter­na­tio­nal Con­fer­ence on Public Health in Africa”, which took place in Zambia’s capital Lusaka from 27 to 30 November 2023, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) was represented at two side events organised by the Centre for International Health Protection (ZIG). The first side event was about early warning and disease detection, the second about surveillance systems for non-communicable diseases, injuries and mental health.

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On 9 November 2023, members of the Inter­na­tio­nal As­so­ci­a­tion of National Public Health Institutes and the World Health Organization’s Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence convened at the RKI for an informal exchange. The group discussed core capabilities that National Public Health Agencies should have in terms of emergency preparedness and response.

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The members of the European Biosecurity Regulators Forum held their annual exchange meeting in Germany for the first time. The Centre for International Health Protection of the Robert Koch Institute was among the group of German representatives in November 2023. Participants emphasised that the combination of artificial intelligence and life sciences will pose new challenges for biosecurity.

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On 7 and 8 November 2023, the team of the German National Focal Point for Emergency Medical Teams at RKI hosted the annual EMT National Stakeholder Meeting in Berlin. The focus was on current deployment scenarios such as possible emergency medical aid measures by German EMTs in the context of the present situation in Gaza, as well as overarching strategic and operational topics.

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On 13 and 14 October 2023, the kick-off meeting for the “European Joint Action to maximise the impact of the EU Global Health Strategy” took place in Berlin. Overall coordination of the Joint Action lies with the French Ministry of Health. The RKI has been designated as the implementing institution for Germany.

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Since 2020, the Emer­gency Me­di­cal Teams of I.S.A.R. Germany and MDMC from Indonesia have been supporting each other within the framework of the WHO EMT Twinning concept. With the visit of I.S.A.R. to the Indonesian partners in September 2023, the cooperation entered the second round. A report from Yogyakarta.

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Twenty-eight public health specialists from the African region participated in the one-week workshop that happened in Windhoek in autumn 2023. Running from October 2023 until December 2025, the comprehensive on-the-job pro­fes­sion­al training programme aims to help build capacity in public health research.

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The project called “A social-ecological network approach to understanding zoonotic outbreak risk” (SENZOR) started with a kick-off meeting in The Gambia in September 2023. Framing the two-day workshop were field visits to the villages in the research region of the project that included anthropological fieldwork exercises and exemplary veterinary sampling.

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In August and early September 2023 two teams from the Robert Koch Institute visited Madagascar within the “Assessing and Building Capacities: Madagascar's public health system” (ABCM) project, funded under Global Health Protection Programme (GHPP). Lab experts from the Centre for International Health Protection provided presentations and training on laboratory waste management and a joint session on sample management.

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On request of the Ministry of Health Rwanda and the Rwanda Biomedical Centre (RBC), the German Epidemic Preparedness Team (SEEG) conducted a 9-day training in Kigali, Rwanda, in September 2023. A public health expert from the ZIG 4 unit gave a training on infection prevention and control which included core components like clinical waste management, IPC assessment tools as well as cleaning and disinfection.

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PAS­QUALE (Part­ner­ship to Im­pro­ve Pa­tient Safe­ty and Quality of Care) held the country’s first national stakeholder meeting about Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) on 17-18 July 2023 in Conakry, Guinea. The project partners aim to expand the local production and distribution of alcohol-based hand rub.

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Non-com­mu­ni­cab­le di­sea­ses and mental health conditions, such as diabetes or depression, as well as accidents and injuries, account for a large share of the disease burden and deaths in the 55 member states of the African Union. The RKI is supporting the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in a joint project to strengthen surveillance and health information systems for this disease spectrum.

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