Improving New Zealand's preparations for the next pandemic

Scott, Julia; Wilson, Nick; Baker, Michael G

Recommendations from New Zealand health sector debriefs on the response to Ebola also emphasised the need for further development of intelligence, communication and decision support tools and a framework providing for infectious disease management across a range of disease types and transmission methods. 38 The recent workshop convened by the Health Environment and Infection Research Unit of the University of Otago and the Integrated Systems for Epidemic Response aimed to identify opportunities to strengthen capacity to prevent and respond to emerging infectious diseases, particularly in the South Pacific. Participants discussed the need for technical and financial support from Australia and NZ for Pacific Island countries in epidemiology, laboratory capacity and infection prevention and control, and recommended that countries in the region are encouraged to assess their capacity for responding to public health emergencies using appropriate tools such as the joint external evaluation tool. The need for field epidemiology training in public health workforce development was emphasised, and steps towards ensuring public health data is rapidly available and better utilised were discussed, including undertaking a stocktake of returned traveller surveillance and use of rapid electronic journals (e.g. Eurosurveillance). It was recommended that a health or development agency perform a regional surveillance needs assessment to guide development of an operational plan under APSED, and that agencies in the region continue to strengthen collaboration between human and animal health sectors at all levels with a view to developing an effective One Health platform.