Video summary
The Ministry of Health, Wellness, and Nutrition recently partnered with the Pan-American Health Organization to host a comprehensive four-day training workshop aimed at advancing integrated online surveillance guidelines in St. Lucia. This digital platform serves as a critical tool for disease tracking and data analysis, designed to ensure timely detection, accurate reporting, and coordinated responses across various sectors facing public health threats. The initiative brings together representatives from diverse fields including education, ports, tourism, environmental health, animal health, and health promotion, ensuring that all stakeholders gain a clear understanding of their specific roles within the surveillance system and the pathways for identifying emerging risks.
Central to this effort is Dr. Michelle Fuis, the national epidemiologist who emphasized the necessity of adopting a One Health approach due to the significant number of diseases originating from animals. She explained that because humans cannot address these threats alone given the complex interface between human health, animal populations, and the environment, it was essential for every individual involved in reporting to understand how they fit into the broader system. Rather than creating a static document meant only for desks, the team developed an interactive web page accessible from anywhere—whether at home, in an office, or while traveling—which allows users to download specific sections relevant to their sector and stay updated on evolving health threats.
Eden Augustus, a contractor with PAHO who facilitated the training sessions, highlighted how this project strengthens St. Lucia's public health surveillance system by consolidating rules, responsibilities, and standard operating procedures for all involved sectors into one accessible digital hub. The platform incorporates insights gathered from stakeholder interviews conducted over three years to define clear steps for managing non-communicable diseases (NCDs), communicable diseases, and environmental risk factors. This workshop is deemed extremely important because it clarifies the distinct roles required to catch outbreaks early before they spread widely, effectively bridging the gap between prevention and containment through unified sectoral cooperation.
The integrated surveillance web page represents a forward-looking solution that empowers public health authorities to continuously update the platform with new diseases as emerging threats evolve over time. By making these guidelines interactive and universally accessible, the program ensures that all sectors remain informed about their duties in disease monitoring without relying on outdated paper documents. Ultimately, this collaborative effort between local ministries and international partners like PAHO establishes a robust framework for St. Lucia to navigate public health challenges more effectively, ensuring that timely data analysis leads to faster, life-saving interventions across the nation.
Read the full video transcript
The Ministry of Health, Wellness, and
Nutrition, in collaboration with the
Pan-American Health Organization, PAHO,
recently hosted a 4-day training session
to advance the navigation of the
integrated online surveillance
guidelines. The integrated online
surveillance guidelines is the digital
platform utilized for disease tracking
and data analysis to ensure timely
detection, reporting and improve
coordinated responses across sectors to
public health threats.
Representatives from various sectors
such as education, ports, tourism,
environmental health, animal health and
health promotion to Nimlu participated
in the training and gained a better
understanding of their role in
surveillance and pathways for reporting
and identifying public health threats.
National epidemiologist Dr. Michelle
Fuis spoke on how the platform of the
integrated online surveillance
guidelines work. As we can see, we have
a lot of diseases originating from
animals. And so we thought it necessary
in the development or the redevelopment
of our surveillance guidelines to do it
from a more onehealth approach where
everybody's involved in reporting. Um we
think that that is the best approach. um
we cannot do it alone and because of the
human animal
environment interface um persons need to
know how they fit into the surveillance
system. Um we also took a slightly
different approach with this one um as
opposed to creating just a document that
can be placed on a desk. Um what we did
is make it into a web page, an
interactive web page where persons can
have access to it. So whether you're in
your vehicle, you're in your office, um
you're on vacation, you can access this
web page. You can download certain
sections that are pertinent to you.
Contractor for the Pan-American Health
Organization, Eden Augustus, who also
facilitated the training sessions, spoke
on the support provided by PAHO for the
development of the integrated online
surveillance guidelines, which will
contribute to the strengthening of St.
Lucia's public health surveillance
system. Using all of the stakeholder
interviews that we've done with
different ministries over the last three
years, we have worked with the national
epidemiologist, Dr. Michelle Francois,
to develop the web page, the integrated
surveillance web page. So, this web page
houses all of the different rules and
responsibilities for different sectors
involved in health surveillance. Um, it
also includes all of the different SOPs,
so standard operating procedures for all
of the NCDs, communicable diseases, as
well as environmental risk factors to
help all of the different sectors in
terms of what their steps, rules, and
responsibilities are in disease
surveillance. I think that this workshop
is extremely important for St. Lucia. It
highlights all of the different roles
and responsibilities um as mentioned
before in terms of health surveillance
which would be the difference between
catching an outbreak early on the stage
and having caught the outbreak when it's
already being spread.
>> The integrated surveillance web page
will allow public health authorities to
continuously update the platform with
new and relevant diseases as emerging
health threats evolve. Reporting from
the Ministry of Health, Wellness and
Nutrition, I am Fernal Neptune.