Contain This: The Latest in Global Health Security: Recent Episodes
Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Produced for the Australian Government's Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, this fortnightly podcast will bring you insightful information and updates on what is shaping the future of global health.
In the final episode of Contain This this season, we are joined by Australia’s Ambassador for Global Health, Dr Lucas de Toca PSM, and the former Ambassador for Regional Health Security, Dr Stephanie Williams, to reflect on how Australia delivers assistance for health in our region and what they see as the key challenges and priorities.
They discuss how Australia’s role in supporting our region to build resilient, equitable health systems has changed over the COVID-19 pandemic, the new International Development Policy and other recent changes, and how this will be reflected under the new Partnerships for a Healthy Region initiative.
Our speakers on this episode:
- Dr Lucas de Toca, Australian Ambassador for Global Health
- Dr Stephanie Williams, former Ambassador for Regional Health Security
We encourage you to join the conversation on X at @AmbGlobalHealth.
In today’s episode of Contain This, we feature the Field Epidemiology in Action (FEiA) program, which trains field epidemiologists in Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands to strengthen outbreak detection and response through partnership and workforce development.
The FEiA program, supported by the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, is currently training up to 42 staff in PNG and Solomon Islands to conduct surveillance and implement public health interventions to help health authorities respond more quickly and effectively to disease outbreaks such as COVID-19.
Our guests on this episode:
- James Flint, an infectious disease epidemiologist and programme manager from the University of Newcastle.
- Adrian Kakayan, a nursing officer based in PNG who has recently completed the FEiA program.
For more information on the FEiA program visit the website, Youtube, and X (formerly Twitter) channels.
We encourage you to join the conversation on X at @AusAmbRHS.
The Australian Volunteers Program is an Australian Government-funded initiative that supports global volunteering across the Pacific, Asia, and Africa to achieve locally led change and the realisation of the Sustainable Development Goals.
In this episode of Contain This, we bring you a story of how one Australian volunteer helped to support health outcomes in Vanuatu, working with the Ministry of Health in Port Vila, supported by the Australian Volunteers Program.
Chris Coles has recently wrapped up his assignment in Vanuatu, which he commenced in January 2022. Speaking while on assignment in Port Vila, Chris talks about why he was motivated to volunteer, his science background, what his work has involved in supporting Vanuatu’s COVID-19 response, the challenges he’s faced, and what he’s learnt and achieved during his assignment.
The Australian Volunteers Program fosters strong relationships between Australians and communities around the world to contribute to equitable development outcomes.
The Australian Volunteers Program is calling for Australians to register their interest or search assignments advertised on the website. There are now a range of different options to choose from including remote, in-country and hybrid assignments.
For more information visit: www.australianvolunteers.com
We encourage you to join the conversation on X (formerly Twitter) at @AusAmbRHS.
Launched earlier this year, the sixth Global Health 50/50 report focussed for the first time on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in the workplace ranging from menstruation, abortion and menopause, to antenatal care and caring responsibilities.
Our guests on this episode are the founders of Global Health 50/50, Professor Sarah Hawkes and Professor Kent Buse.
In this episode, we discuss the latest Global Health 50/50 report, its findings, and where Sarah and Kent have seen a shift over the past six years in commitments to equality and the gender responsiveness of global health programmes.
Global Health 50/50 is an independent, evidence-driven initiative to advance action and accountability for gender equality in global health. You can visit their website here: https://globalhealth5050.org/.
Professor Sarah Hawkes is Director of the Centre for Gender and Global Health and Professor of Global Public Health at University College London and Professor Kent Buse is currently Director of the newly established global Healthier Societies Research Program at the George Institute for Global Health, with an appointment at the Faculty of Medicine at the University of New South Wales.
To read the Global Health 50/50 report visit https://globalhealth5050.org/2023-report/.
We encourage you to join the conversation on Twitter at @AusAmbRHS.
"I want to know what to do when I get my first period and what changes to expect during puberty, so I feel prepared, assured and confident to manage them.” – Oky user
Girls have important questions about their health, and often they don’t know where to turn to find trusted, culturally sensitive information about their menstrual, sexual and reproductive health. UNICEF’s East Asia and Pacific Regional Office saw a need to close this gender digital divide and set forth to develop Oky – the world’s first period tracker app for girls and created with girls.
In today’s episode, we speak to Gerda Binder, UNICEF's advisor on gender and technology, about gender equality and digital technology in the region, and how the Oky app is helping to close that divide.
Gerda explains how the idea for the Oky app came about, the co-creation process with girls, their families, and communities, and how the app has been received in pilot countries of Indonesia and Philippines. We also discuss how her team is approaching the rollout of Oky in other countries like Papua New Guinea, where different cultural norms and religions play a part in access to an understanding of menstrual health.
Australia has provided $8 million to UNICEF to support the Oky app in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Papua New Guinea.
Find out more about the Oky app here: https://okyapp.info/
We encourage you to join the conversation and follow Australia's Ambassador for Regional Health Security Dr Stephanie Williams at @AusAmbRHS.
What are ‘bad medicines’? How do they make it onto our shelves? And what is being done to address substandard and falsified medicines in the Indo-Pacific?
In this week’s episode, we delve into the ongoing problem of ‘bad medicines’, otherwise known as substandard and falsified medicines. Our guest is Dr. Paul Huleatt, strategic partnerships and programme implementation lead at the international regulatory branch of the Therapeutic Goods Administration.
Based in Singapore, Dr Huleatt works closely with regulators across the Indo-Pacific on a Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade-funded regulatory strengthening programme. Paul also acts as the Australian Chair of the Steering Committee for the World Health Organization's Member State Mechanism on substandard and falsified medicines.
In this episode we discuss:
- what ‘bad medicines’ are, how they are created, and the history of this issue that dates back 100 years
- the systems that are in place to detect and prevent bad medicines
- how the Australian Government’s Pacific Medicines Testing Program is working to detect and prevent bad medicines
- how the Indo-Pacific Regulatory Strengthening Program is building capacity with regulatory authorities in the Indo Pacific and providing regulatory support to countries that don't have regulatory authorities
- what’s next in the fight against substandard and falsified medicines in the Indo-Pacific
You can find out more about the WHO Member State Mechanism on Substandard and Falsified Medical Products here: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/WHO-MVP-EMP-SAV-2019.04
A link to a news article on the case study in Indonesia that is discussed in the podcast is here: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/indonesia-revokes-firms-fever-syrup-licences-amid-probe-into-150-deaths-2022-10-31/
We encourage you to join the conversation and follow Australia's Ambassador for Regional Health Security Dr Stephanie Williams at @AusAmbRHS.
Our guest this week is Sir Jeremy Farrar, the World Health Organization’s new Chief Scientist, who took up the role earlier this year.
As Chief Scientist, Dr Farrar oversees WHO’s science division, bringing together the best brains in science and innovation from around the world.
Prior to joining WHO, Dr Farrar was the director of the Wellcome Trust, and prior to that he served as the director of the Oxford Clinical Research Unit at the hospital for tropical diseases in Vietnam for 17 years.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Dr Farrar’s priorities for the science division at WHO over the next couple of years.
- What he sees as key innovation and research challenges and opportunities for WHO.
- His views on the governance of public good R&D for global health products, how the system could be improved, and the opportunities for WHO to influence that space.
You can read more about WHO’s science division here: https://www.who.int/our-work/science-division
We encourage you to join the conversation at @CentreHealthSec. You can follow Australia's Ambassador for Regional Health Security Dr Stephanie Williams at @AusAmbRHS and Dr Jeremy Farrar at @JeremyFarrar.
Our guest this week is Carolyn Reynolds, Co-founder of the Pandemic Action Network (PAN).
In this episode we discuss how Carolyn’s involvement in the response to the Ebola crisis in West Africa led her to co-found PAN; and what PAN works to achieve, particularly in the lead up to the high-level meeting on pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response later this year.
We also discuss:
- Some of PAN’s accomplishments responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and preventing future pandemics.
- The role PAN has played in the creation of The Pandemic Fund.
- What it means to have a civil society voice for pandemic preparedness.
As well as her work with PAN, Carolyn is also a Global Health Policy Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, an expert adviser to the Commission on Strengthening America’s Health Security, and a Distinguished Fellow at The George Institute for Global Health. She has served as a senior adviser to international organizations, including the Global Financing Facility, World Bank, WHO, and Global Preparedness Monitoring Board.
You can find out more about the Pandemic Action Network here. You can also follow PAN on Twitter at @PandemicAction.
More on the World Bank’s announcement of the first round of funding for The Pandemic Fund is available at this link.
We encourage you to join the conversation on Twitter at @CentreHealthSec and @AusAmbRHS
Welcome to the second part of our insights from the Global Health Division at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Climate, Health and International Development Seminar.
The seminar explored the impacts of climate change and health, its relevance to health policy and programming in the Australian aid program, and how to build climate adaptation into health programs throughout the aid cycle, from concept and design, to implementation, monitoring and evaluation. It was supported by the Specialist Health Service (SHS).
In Part One of this two-part series, we heard from Professor Kathryn Bowen from the University of Melbourne, who presented on climate change and impacts on health in our region.
Today, we bring you insights from Paul Mitchell, Save the Children’s Principal Climate Change Adviser. Paul is the lead technical advisor for Save the Children’s engagement with global climate funds, including the Green Climate Fund, providing high level technical advice, oversight and quality control for all proposals. He also provides strategic leadership on technical issues related to Save the Children’s climate change programming across sectors, with a particular focus on child-centred approaches, community-based and locally led adaptation; capacity building and development/strengthening of systems and governance processes for adaptation at all levels. Previously, Paul managed the Australian aid program's International Climate Change Adaptation Initiative. With nearly 20 years of experience in climate change and development, Paul has developed, implemented, monitored, and evaluated adaptation projects and strategies at local, national and regional scales across the Pacific, South and Southeast Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean.
You can access the slides from Paul’s presentation here.
We encourage you to join the conversation at @CentreHealthSec. You can also follow Save the Children’s work on Twitter at @SaveChildrenAus and LinkedIn.
The Global Health Division at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade recently presented the second of its Health and Development Seminar Series: Climate Change, Health and International Development, supported by the Specialist Health Service (SHS).
The seminar explored the impacts of climate change and health, its relevance to health policy and programming in the Australian aid program, and how to build climate adaptation into health programs throughout the aid cycle, from concept and design, to implementation, monitoring and evaluation.
In this episode we bring you insights from Professor Kathryn Bowen, who presented on climate change and impacts on health in our region.
Professor Bowen is Deputy Director at Melbourne Climate Futures and Professor with the Environment, Climate and Global Health at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, University of Melbourne. She was a lead author on the health chapter of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Working Group II, Sixth Assessment Report 2018-2022. Kathryn is an international expert on the science and policy of sustainability (particularly climate change) and health issues, with 20 years’ experience in original public health research, science assessment, capacity development and policy advice.
We encourage you to join the conversation at @CentreHealthSec. You can follow Professor Kathryn Bowen at @kathrynjbowen and Melbourne Climate Futures at @MCFunimelb. More information is also available at unimelb.edu.au/climate and www.linkedin.com/showcase/melbourneclimatefutures
In this week’s episode, we bring you a panel discussion on how the vaccine champions programme has empowered community leaders to advocate for COVID-19 vaccines in Australia, Vietnam, and Fiji.
You will hear from three vaccination experts and leaders who are all involved in an innovative behavioural change programme known as Vaccine Champions, which was developed in Victoria, Australia and has recently been rolled out in Fiji and Vietnam.
On the panel:
- Sr Litiana Volavola, National Program Manager for the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) and Supply Chain and Fiji COVID-19 Vaccination Team Lead
- Professor Thu Anh Nguyen from the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research in Vietnam
- Professor Margie Danchin, Group Leader, Vaccine Uptake, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute
In this episode we discuss the results from the implementation of the vaccine champions programme in Australia and how it has been rolled out in Vietnam and Fiji, including:
- An overview of the vaccine champions programme and what it means to be a vaccine champion.
- The challenges and barriers to achieving high vaccine coverage in the community such as access and acceptance.
- Learnings from recent trainings in Vietnam and Fiji and how the programme is supporting community leaders to advocate for COVID-19 vaccines in their communities.
We encourage you to join the conversation at @CentreHealthSec. You also access the paper Vaccine Champions Training Program: Empowering Community Leaders to Advocate for COVID-19 Vaccines here: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-393X/10/11/1893
Our guest this week is Dr James Kelley, Team Lead for Malaria and Vector-borne Diseases in the World Health Organization’s Western Pacific Regional Office. In honour of World Malaria Day 2023, Dr Kelley describes the status of the epidemic globally and in the Indo-Pacific Region.
We also discuss:
- Getting the Global Technical Strategy target of reducing global malaria incidence and mortality rates by at least 90% by 2030 back on track.
- Recent developments in malaria prevention technologies, including new insecticide-treated nets and malaria vaccines.
- The potential impact of increased urbanisation on malaria risk.
- Progress on antimalarial drug resistance in the Greater Mekong subregion.
You can read more about the Global Technical Strategy here and the latest World Malaria Report here. We encourage you to join the conversation on Twitter at @CentreHealthSec. You can follow Dr Kelley on @JFKWPRO.
Our guest this week is Ms Hang Nguyen, the Vietnam Country Director for MSI Reproductive Choices, formerly Marie Stopes International.
With almost 9000 staff working across 37 countries, MSI works to ensure that reproductive choice is possible through access to advice, contraception, and safe abortion.
Hang has held the position of Vietnam Country Director for MSI for 18 years. She has been recognised by the Ministry of Health and the international NGO community in Vietnam for her leadership of the most innovative and sustainable foreign NGO in Vietnam.
In this episode we discuss:
- Hang’s work with MSI over the past 18 years.
- The global challenges in satisfying unmet demand for sexual and reproductive health services.
- The specific challenges that women face in accessing sexual and reproductive health services in Vietnam.
- How MSI works in partnership with public and private health service providers, international development organisations, and businesses to expand the availability of essential services and advance women's sexual and reproductive health and rights in Vietnam.
We encourage you to join the conversation on Twitter at @CentreHealthSec. You can follow MSI Reproductive Choices on Twitter at @msichoices.
In this second episode of our two-part series on disability and healthy equity, our guest this week is Villaney Remengesau, based in Palau, who is the co-chair of the Pacific Disability Forum.
Lany is a dedicated advocate for disability rights and inclusion across the Pacific. She was recently awarded the Disability Pasifika Award – the highest award for a person with a disability who has made a valuable contribution to the work in the region.
To complement Part One of this series with Darryl Barrett from WHO, in this episode, Lany brings her lived experience of disability to the discussion around health equity for persons with disabilities, having worked in the health sector in Palau for 10 years.
In this episode we discuss:
- The barriers faced by people with disabilities in accessing health care.
- The importance of ensuring people with disabilities are engaged in health programs.
- Her key recommendations for how development partners working in health can ensure they integrate disability inclusion into their programmes.
If you missed Part One with Darryl Barrett from the World Health Organization, you can listen to it here: https://containthis.buzzsprout.com/620797/12687278-progressing-health-equity-for-persons-with-disabilities-darryl-barrett-who-part-1
You can also access the WHO Global Report on Health Equity for Persons with Disabilities, December 2022 here: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240063600
We encourage you to join the conversation on Twitter at @CentreHealthSec. You can follow the Pacific Disability Forum at @PDFSEC.
Our guest this week is Dr Amelia Afuhaʻamango Tuʻipulotu, the World Health Organization’s new Chief Nursing Officer.
Dr Amelia was the Kingdom of Tonga’s first female Minister for Health and the first Tongan to receive a Ph.D. in Nursing. Her previous roles also include Chief Nursing Officer of Tonga and Director of Nursing at Vaiola Hospital. Dr Amelia took up her role at the WHO earlier this year.
In this episode we discuss:
- Dr Amelia’s initial priorities in her new role.
- Pivotal moments in Dr Amelia’s career.
- How her Tongan values shape her leadership approach.
- The actions health ministries should take to support nurses against the backdrop of a declining workforce.
You can read more about the Emergency Care campaign here. We encourage you to join the conversation on Twitter at @CentreHealthSec. You can follow Dr Amelia at @AfuhaAmelia
Our guest this week is Darryl Barrett, technical lead for disability with the World Health Organization in Geneva, who joins us to discuss the WHO Global Report on Health Equity for Persons with Disabilities. The report was released in December 2022, 10 years after the publishing of the World Report on Disability in 2011.
An estimated 1.3 billion people (16% of the global population) currently experience a significant disability. The WHO report highlights that while some progress has been made in recent years, the world is still far from realising the right to health for many people with disability.
In this episode, we discuss:
- The significance of the WHO Global Report on Health Equity for Persons with Disabilities.
- The contributing factors that lead to health inequities for people with disability.
- Intersectionality and the compounding discrimination that women and girls with disability are more likely to face.
- How we should consider moving forward to improve health outcomes and equity for persons with disabilities.
You can access the WHO Global Report on Health Equity for Persons with Disabilities, December 2022 here: https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240063600
We encourage you to join the conversation on Twitter at @CentreHealthSec.
Our guest this week is Dr Sharon Salmon, technical officer for the Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN), hosted by the World Health Organization. GOARN is a network of over 250 technical institutions and networks globally that respond to acute public health events with the deployment of staff and resources to affected countries.
Dr. Salmon is based at the Western Pacific Regional Office of WHO working in the emergency management operations of the World Health Emergencies Programme. Prior to this, Dr Salmon worked for the Ministry of Health in Singapore and as a technical officer for WHO in Vietnam and Philippines.
In this episode, we discuss:
- Dr Salmon’s work with GOARN.
- How GOARN operates the importance of partnerships, particularly in the Western Pacific region.
- Some of the challenges GOARN faced in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Reflections on some of Dr Salmon’s deployments to Liberia during the 2014 Ebola outbreak.
- The key priorities for GOARN’s recently launched 2022 - 2026 Strategy.
We encourage you to join the conversation on Twitter at @CentreHealthSec. You can also follow GOARN at @WHOGOARN and https://goarn.who.int/
We are proud to present the 2022 Annual Ruth Bishop Address.
Professor Ruth Bishop AC led a team of researchers to the landmark discovery of rotavirus in 1973, a major breakthrough in tackling one of the most significant causes of infant mortality worldwide. The team’s discovery kick-started the successful 30-year endeavour to develop a rotavirus vaccine.
In 2019, the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security established an annual health security address, named in honour of the Australian scientist and microbiologist for her leadership and dedication to science and global health.
On 22 November 2022, the Centre held an In Memoriam address presented by University of Melbourne’s Professor Graeme Barnes and Professor Julie Bines following Ruth Bishop’s passing earlier this year. Ruth’s brother David Langford spoke on behalf of the family.
We encourage you to reflect on this address at @CentreHealthSec on Twitter and Facebook.
Reflections from the event
Vale Ruth, a great scientist, inspiring mentor and leader, and wonderful human being.Jim Buttery, Murdoch Children’s Research Institute
As a fellow virologist, I am only too aware of the positive impact that Ruth made to our community. Not only the science, which has had an enormous global health impact, but also in her mentoring of young scientists and her ongoing legacy as a role model in our discipline. She will, and is, sorely missed amongst our community.Professor Paul Young, University of Queensland
Thank you very much, I am very honoured to collaborate with the team and thank you so much Professor Bishop for her legacy and we are going continue her work with all Australian scientists, especially with Prof Julie Bines and team.Jarir At Thobari, Universitas Gadjah Madah
This week we continue our analysis of One Health, bringing you a discussion about how One Health approaches are being advanced in the Pacific with Dr Salanieta Taka Saketa. Dr Sala is a Senior Epidemiologist in the public health division of the Pacific community (SPC).
We discuss how priorities vary in different Pacific country contexts, the application of One Health to noncommunicable diseases, the intersection between One Health and gender and what needs to be done to strengthen the One Health approach in the region.
Dr Sala also speaks about the history of One Health in the region, and how whole of government responses to climate change-driven disasters such as cyclones have laid the foundation for using multi-sectoral approaches for disease prevention activities.
This episode comes to you from the World One Health congress which was sponsored by the Indo Pacific Centre for Health Security. Find out more at: https://worldonehealthcongress2022.miceapps.com/client/sites/view/WOH2022
For more information on Dr Sala’s work, visit:
- The Pacific Community Public Health website: https://php.spc.int/
- Pacific Public Health Surveillance Network: https://www.pphsn.net/
We encourage you to join the conversation at @CentreHealthSec and @WOHCongress.
From the seventh World One Health Congress held earlier this month in Singapore, we bring you this conversation with Dr Osman Dar and Dr Catherine Machalaba, both members of the One Health High-Level Expert Panel.
In this episode, we explore what One Health is, approaches in practice, including addressing Nipah virus in Malaysia, how the value of One Health interventions can be measured, finishing with some causes of concern when it comes to realising One Health—and where there is room for optimism.
Guests:
- Dr Osman Dar, Consultant in Global Health at the UK Health Security Agency and Project Director for the Global Health Program at Chatham House
- Dr Catherine Machalaba, Principal Scientist for Health and Policy at EcoHealth Alliance
The World One Health Congress was sponsored by the Indo Pacific Centre for Health Security. Find out more at: https://worldonehealthcongress2022.miceapps.com/client/sites/view/WOH2022
We encourage you to join the conversation on Twitter at @CentreHealthSec and @WOHCongress.
In this episode we’re joined by a panel of experts from the World Bank to discuss universal health coverage in Southeast Asia and the Pacific.
Panellists:
- Dr Toomas Palu, Adviser on Global Coordination at the World Bank's Health, Nutrition and Population Global Practice (Geneva, Switzerland)
- Dr Aparnaa Somanathan, Practice Manager for Health, Nutrition and Population for the East Asia Pacific region (Sydney, Australia)
- Dr Wayne Irava, Health Specialist (Honiara, Solomon Islands)
- Chindavanh Vongsaly, Health Specialist (Vientiane, Laos)
We explore the current state of UHC in Southeast Asia and the Pacific post-pandemic and what the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted about the intersection between global health security and UHC.
We also discuss:
- Why UHC is it more than essential health services
- How the World Bank is working with partners like DFAT to help strengthen health systems through the Advance UHC Multi-Donor Trust Fund
- How UHC compares in Southeast Asia and the Pacific in terms of political commitments, progress, and challenges
- The extent to which the Advance UHC Multi-Donor Trust Fund is an innovative way of progressing UHC
- Key insights from Advance UHC Multi-Donor Trust Fund programs in Laos.
We encourage you to join the conversation at @CentreHealthSec. You can also follow the World Bank at @WorldBank.
This week’s guest is Dr Shubha Nagesh, a medical doctor and a public health physician in India. She is currently the chapter development manager for Asia Pacific and the Middle East at Women in Global Health, where her work focuses on gender transformative leadership.
In this episode, we talk about the importance of gender equality to health security, including the disproportionate impact of infectious diseases on women and gender equality, and how health security can take a more gender responsive approach.
We also discuss:
- The impact of COVID-19 on gender equality
- How gender inequalities can influence those who are impacted most by infectious disease outbreaks and public health emergencies
- How power and privilege imbalances can undermine health outcomes and why gender transformative leadership and a rights-based perspective is needed
- Why women need to be at the decision-making table and in leadership positions to help advance gender equality and improve equity in global health
- How gender equality and women’s empowerment can be best integrated into the health security sector.
We encourage you to join the conversation at @CentreHealthSec.
You can also follow Dr Shuba Nagesh on Twitter at @snagesh2.
Vaccine hesitancy has been a particular challenge for governments and health teams around the world as COVID-19 vaccines have been rolled out. In Papua New Guinea, a country still seeking to embed a system of routine childhood vaccinations, the rollout presented a challenge for the health workforce.
Our guest this week is Mr Api Kassman, Executive Director of the National Vaccine Task Force in Papua New Guinea. We discuss his involvement in the COVID-19 vaccine rollout in PNG and how the country’s first adult targeted vaccine program was rolled out. Mr Kassman speaks about the need for a shift in strategy to include fit-for-purpose, culturally appropriate interventions.
We encourage you to join the conversation at @CentreHealthSec.
Last month at the Global Health Security Conference in Singapore, Policy Cures Research launched their second edition of the Landscape of Emerging Infectious Disease Research and Development funding report, supported by the Australian Government.
Our guest this week is Dr Paul Barnsley, Senior Analyst at Policy Cures Research, and the lead author of the report, who joins us to talk about its key findings.
We discuss how R&D funding for Ebola ultimately led to success in creating a stable of products that limits its risk of its pandemic potential. Plus, how the unprecedented R&D response to the Covid-19 pandemic is reshaped the funding landscape for emerging infectious disease R&D into the future.
Dr Barnsley also speaks about the promising new entrants in EID R&D funding from low to middle income countries, given that they are often the countries that epidemic disease does most harm.
We hope you join the conversation at @CentreHealthSec and follow Policy Cures Research at @PCuresResearch.
- To access Policy Cures Research reports, visit https://www.policycuresresearch.org/analysis/
- To access G-FINDER data, visit https://gfinderdata.policycuresresearch.org/
As the global health community continues to examine how prepared we were for a pandemic, this week’s episode asks – how can we move the conversation forward to future resilience, and what systems can be put in place to ensure we can withstand future pandemics?
Our guest this week is Professor Mika Salminen, the Director of Health Security at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare. We discuss the World Health Organization’s Joint External Evaluations (JEEs) and States Parties Annual Reports (SPARs), and what he’s learned through his work focussing on measurement systems of health outcomes.
Much of the dialogue around Covid-19 is around what is currently happening, but Professor Salminen discusses the importance of thinking about what we can do better to safeguard against the next pandemic so that we do not need the prolonged global shutdowns that have had major consequences on our health, welfare, and economies – particularly in low-income countries.
This conversation was recorded at the recent Global Health Security Conference in Singapore. We hope you join the conversation at @CentreHealthSec and follow Professor Salminen’s work at @mika_salminen and @THLresearch.
As we move from COVID-19 as a pandemic, to COVID-19 as a virus, this week’s episode asks – what did we learn about pandemic response as a global health community? In particular, what did we learn about applying a global health response in middle- and low-economically developed countries? And what can we do better next time?
Our guests this week are Dr Bill Rodriguez, the Chief Executive Officer of FIND, the global alliance for diagnostics, and Dr Fifa Rahman, the Principal Consultant at Matahari Global Solutions, and a Permanent NGO Representative on the WHO Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator.
We discuss the successes of the international community during the pandemic, such as the unprecedented international coordination and the rapid development of health technologies have been vital to the pandemic response. But both guests point out that too often these measures were implemented without sufficient input from the people who are affected. We ask how we can work towards a future pandemic response that decentralises the decision making and control of the tools of global health and empowers people and communities to make decisions about their needs.
As we move from COVID as a pandemic to COVID as a virus, it’s incumbent on the global health community to take the lessons from this pandemic and strengthen our systems and processes for the next pandemic. This is the conversation is the first step in that process.
We hope you join the conversation @CentreHealthSec and follow Bill and Fifa’s work @FINDdx and @fifarahman.
The Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security has begun a series of roundtables across the country on Future Funding Priorities.
At the recent roundtable in Melbourne Robin Davies, First Assistant Secretary of the Global Health Division at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Head of the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, spoke to Professor Jodie McVernon, the Director of Epidemiology at the The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity.
Professor McVernon has become a leading voice on disease spread and control during the COVID-19 pandemic. The conversation follows her work at The Doherty Institute and the Institute’s ongoing partnerships with DFAT.
Professor McVernon talks about how DFAT and the Doherty Institute worked together to help governments in the Indo-Pacific track and respond to COVID.
Professor McVernon explains how DFAT and the Doherty Institute’s data for decision making partnership helped strengthen systems and inform clinical decision making, such as where in PNG the government needed to deploy its limited supply of oxygen.
It's an important conversation as we look to the next stage of our work in the region.
Learn more about Professor McVernon’s work on the Doherty Institute’s website and the SPARK investment page.
Australian Ambassador for Regional Health Security, Stephanie Williams, is back on the road to meet with Australia’s partners in the region and learn about how they have fared during the pandemic.
On today’s episode, Ambassador Williams speaks to Armandina Gusmao Amaral, the Program Director at the Partnership for Human Development. Mana Dina is a stalwart of public health and development in Timor Leste, having worked with AusAID, then the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade since 2004. She developed her passion for healthcare and serving her community watching her late father work as a nurse when she was a child, and she has dedicated her career to helping develop Timor Leste’s health sector.
Mana Dina and Stephanie talk about building resilient health systems in Timor Leste and how the pandemic has challenged the work of the Partnership for Human Development. Mana Dina talks about how her passion for working with people and communities has helped her work in coordination, engagement and management of health systems. We also discuss Mana Dina’s work mentoring the next generation of health workers in Timor Leste and what more needs to be done to not only strengthen the healthcare system in our region, but also develop the pipeline of talented healthcare workers from doctors and nurses, to public health professionals.
We hope you enjoy the conversation and learn more about the Partnership for Human Development’s work at http://phd.tl/
Today’s episode features Professor Allen Cheng, the Director of the Infection Prevention and Healthcare Epidemiology unit at Alfred Health, Professor of Infectious Diseases Epidemiology at Monash University and the Chair of the Advisory Committee on Vaccines to the Therapeutic Goods Administration and an infectious diseases physician.
He is also known to many for his year-long secondment as the Deputy Chief Health Officer of Victoria from July 2020 – June 2021. As Professor Cheng says in today’s episode, he has a “very specific skill set.” An infectious diseases clinician specialising in respiratory infections and flu vaccine effectiveness, he was expertly qualified to lead Victoria’s public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Professor Cheng talks about the challenges of transitioning from a researcher and clinician to public health practitioner, and the lessons he learnt in the process. He advocates for innovative approaches to public health preparedness, like a “public health reservist core,” and talks about how governments can and should effectively buy and use vaccines and COVID treatments.
It’s a fascinating discussion and we hope you join the conversation @CentreHealthSec
World Health Day this Thursday, 7 April will focus global attention on urgent actions needed to keep humans and the planet healthy and foster a movement to create societies focused on well-being.
After two years of a global pandemic, it’s a time to reflect on the fact that the health of our planet and the health of our people are inextricably connected. The WHO estimates that more than 13 million deaths around the world each year are due to avoidable environmental causes.
Our region, the Indo-Pacific, is at the forefront of the climate and health crisis. On today’s episode we are joined by two of Fiji’s health leaders who have been at the forefront of its COVID response and our now at the forefront of the country – and region’s – efforts to continue to strengthen health systems, for everyone.
Dr James Fong is a Fijian obstetrician-gynaecologist who serves as the Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Health and Medical Services. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Fong led the COVID-19 Incidental Management Team and was responsible for communicating with the public on the status of the pandemic.
Dr Aalisha Sahukhan is the Head of Health Protection for the Fijian Ministry of Health and Medical Services. A trained infectious diseases epidemiologist, Dr Sahukhan was appointed acting national advisor on communicable diseases in 2017. In 2018 she became acting head of Health Protection before being appointed head in 2021. Health Protection is a newly formed national programme in Fiji bringing together the departments of environmental health, health emergencies and climate change, and communicable disease.
Drs Fong and Sahukhan talk to Ambassador Williams about the importance of testing and quickly adapting to evolving needs and understanding all factors that influence the health of a society, including environmental factors. We ask, what is effective leadership when responding to a health emergency? And what role do health care workers play in broader social challenges?
We hope you enjoy the conversation and learn more about World Health Day 2022. @WHO @CentreHealthSec @AusAmbRHS #WorldHealthCareWorkerWeek
This Thursday, 24 March is World Tuberculosis Day. An estimated 9.9 million people fell ill with TB in 2020 and 1.5 million people died from the disease.
TB continues to be a blight in the Indo-Pacific region, particularly in Papua New Guinea, Indonesia, Kiribati and the Republic of the Marshall Islands. Papua New Guinea bears the largest burden of disease in the Pacific, including a heavy burden of multidrug-resistant TB. In 2020 almost 30,000 cases were notified there, including 600 cases of multidrug-resistant and extensively drug-resistant TB.
But TB is preventable and curable. So why is it still one of the most infectious and deadly diseases on the planet?
On today’s episode we are joined by three experts who are on the front line of trying to bring an end TB.
Dr Mel Spigelman is the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development – the TB Alliance – and a Member of its Board of Directors. In his time at the TB Alliance, Dr Spiegelman has been a leader in developing a regimen-based paradigm of TB drug development and leading the TB drug research field.
Dr Margaret Kal is the director of the PNG National TB Program (NTP). In this role, Dr Kal is responsible for the development of all national TB guidelines, policies, research, national program reviews and all other plans and policies for TB prevention and care in PNG. Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade supports the work of the NTP.
And finally, Dr Philipp du Cros is an Infectious Diseases Specialist in TB Elimination and Implementation Science at the Burnet Institute. He has extensive experience in the management of TB/HIV programs and has worked with MDR TB programs across Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, India, Myanmar, Uganda, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.
The theme of World TB Day 2022 - ‘Invest to End TB. Save Lives.’ We talk to all of our guests on this episode about practical ways the global community can invest to end TB and the urgent need to invest resources to ramp up the fight against TB.
We hope you learn something from the conversation and join the fight to end TB @TBAlliance @CentreHealthSec
The theme for International Women's Day 2022 is "Gender equality today for a sustainable world tomorrow." Women and girls in the Indo-Pacific region are at the forefront of dealing with the effects of climate affected disasters – from natural disasters to pandemics. They are also leading the charge on disaster risk reduction, climate change adaptation, mitigation, and response, and building a more sustainable future for all.
To celebrate International Women’s Day this week, we are presenting two episodes of Contain This. The second is a recording of a special event hosted by the Embassy of Australia in Washington, D.C., in which Australian Ambassador for Regional Health Security Williams was interviewed by Beverly Kirk, the Executive Director of JOURNEY, a new not-for-profit venture that's focused on the goal of seeing more women in senior leadership roles.
Beverly and Stephanie discuss how we can support the leadership pipeline for women in public health, and how the pandemic has affected women and girls in the Indo-Pacific. They also discuss how podcasts like Contain This can help give women a voice and lift their stories to wider audiences.
We hope you join the conversation @AusAmbRHS Twitter and @AusintheUS Twitter and Facebook.
At the centre of the international response to the COVID-19 pandemic was a set of public health obligations called the International Health Regulations (IHR). The IHR is a legally-binding instrument designed to help the international community prevent and respond to acute public health risks that have the potential to cross borders and threaten people worldwide. They include specific obligations for the World Health Organization to declare a public health emergency of international concern if certain thresholds are met.
This week on Contain This we talk to Australian Assistant Professor Alex Phelan who has made the IHR her area of expertise at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Alex is an Assistant Professor at the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University Medical Center, and also Adjunct Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center. In this episode, she talks to Australian Ambassador for Regional Health Security Stephanie Williams about what went wrong with the response to COVID-19 and outlines some proposed changes to strengthen international public health law in the future.
Our conversation also celebrates the phenomenal Australian women working in public health in the Indo-Pacific and around the world. It’s always a pleasure to meet remarkable women like Alex, making important contributions in her chosen field. We hope you hope enjoy the conversation and follow @CentreHealthSec.
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, not many Australians could tell you who the state’s Chief Health Officer was. In this episode we talk to Professor Brett Sutton, the Chief Health Officer of Victoria, who in the last two years has become one of the most recognisable figures in Australian public health.
We ask Professor Sutton about how the Victorian government has worked with marginalised populations and diverse subgroups during the pandemic, and what they have learnt along the way.
Professor Sutton describes how the Department’s community engagement team scaled from 1 person to over 100 people during the pandemic, as they recognised the importance of a diverse team with the ability to connect and engage with individual communities.
While he recognises that starting this process in the middle of a pandemic was not ideal, Professor Sutton talks about what he and his team have taken from the experience, and how it has fed into the vaccine rollout and broader public health policy in the state.
It’s a fascinating discussion and we hope you join the conversation @CentreHealthSec
One thing we know about the COVID-19 pandemic is that not one state or organisation was adequately prepared for a health crisis of this scale. So, what have we learnt in the last two years about pandemic preparedness? How can states and global health organisations put in place the capacities to respond quickly to a fast-moving threat, and to cooperate across government to be able to prevent, detect and respond swiftly?
In our first episode of 2022 we talk to Beth Cameron, Senior Director for Global Health Security and Biodefense on the White House National Security Council. She was previously the Vice President, Global Biological Policy and Programs at Nuclear Threat Initiative and was instrumental in developing and launching the Global Health Security Agenda at the National Security Council during the Obama Administration.
We spoke to Beth just after America released its new pandemic plan – American Pandemic Preparedness: Transforming Our Capabilities. We talk about what this new plan entails and how global health security cooperation plays an important part of an effective pandemic response.
We hope you listen and join the conversation @CentreHealthSec.
The latest episode in our Indo-Pacific Health Leaders series features Dr Karma Lhazeen, Director of the Department of Medical Services at the Ministry of Health in the Kingdom of Bhutan in conversation with Ambassador Stephanie Williams.
Dr Lhazeen is a tropical medicine specialist, working as a malaria control program manger before becoming chief of the communicable disease division. Since March this year, she has served as the Chair of the Asia Pacific Malaria Elimination Network Vivax Working Group.
Dr Lhazeen has overseen the national rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in her country and was recently promoted to Director of the Department of Medical Services.
For more information visit the Bhutan's Ministry of Health website.
Plus the website of the Asia Pacific Leaders Malaria Alliance and the Asia Pacific Malaria Elimination Network.
Welcome to Contain This, brought to you by the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, an initiative of the Australian Government housed at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. We are proud to present our Annual Ruth Bishop Lecture, with Dr Sarthak Das APLMA.
Dr Sarthak Das is the Chief Executive Officer of the Asia Pacific Leaders Malaria Alliance.
Sarthak joined APLMA from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and continues to hold a position as Senior Advisor for research translation and Global Health Policy at the Harvard Global Health Institute.
His work has spanned diverse Asia-Pacific settings, in countries such as Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar, and Papua New Guinea, as well as in West Africa. It's his 25 years of experience as a public health scientist, development practitioner, and global health policy advisor that inspired this lecture.
You can join the conversation via our social media channels, through @CentreHealthSec and @AusAmbRHS.
Welcome to Contain This brought to you by the Indo-Pacific Center for Health Security, an initiative of the Australian Government housed at the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Today's episode is hosted by Francette Dusan, Senior Advisor at the Center.
In today's episode, Francette speaks to Dr. Ari Probandari and Dr. Virginia Wiseman, from the PINTAR study, which is protecting Indonesia from the threat of antimicrobial resistance. PINTAR was launched in 2018 and focuses on combating the oversupply of antibiotics without prescription by private drug sellers in Indonesia, and the impact it has on antimicrobial resistance. This is the first episode in a two-part series on PINTAR.
Our two guests reflect on leadership, their greatest career moments, and how they've managed the uncertainty of COVID-19. In the second of our two-part series, we'll talk about the great work that PINTAR is doing in Indonesia, so keep an eye out for that.
You can learn more about the work of our guests via the following links:
https://indopacifichealthsecurity.dfat.gov.au/pintar-research-project-supports-indonesian-response-covid-19
http://www.pintarstudy.org
https://www.pintarstudy.org/team/
https://kirby.unsw.edu.au/people/professor-virginia-wiseman
https://indopacifichealthsecurity.dfat.gov.au/health-security-hero-dr-ari-probandari
You can join the conversation via our social media channels, through @CentreHealthSec and @AusAmbRHS.
Enjoy the episode.
Welcome to Contain This, brought to you by the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, an initiative of the Australian Government's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
As we mark World AIDS Day on December 1, we bring you the story of one of our projects.
The ACTUP-PNG project is founded on a long-term partnership with affected communities.
In this episode, we discuss the exciting things the program is doing, with ACTUP's three Principal Investigators, Dr Janet Gare, head of the Sexual and Reproductive Health Unit at the PNG Institute of Medical Research (PNGIMR), Dr Angela Kelly-Hanku, who holds joint positions at PNGIMR and the University of New South Wales' Kirby Institute and Steven Badman from the Kirby Institute.
You can learn more about the project here:
https://indopacifichealthsecurity.dfat.gov.au/accelerating-uptake-hiv-drug-resistance-surveillance-initiatives-papua-new-guinea-actup-png
https://kirby.unsw.edu.au/news/researchers-unite-improve-hiv-viral-load-testing-and-detection-drug-resistance-papua-new-guinea
You can join the conversation on Twitter via @CentreHealthSec and @AusAmbRHS.
Enjoy the episode.
Welcome to Contain This, brought to you by the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, an initiative of the Australian Government's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
This episode is hosted by Francette Dusan, Senior Advisor at the Centre. In today's episode, Francette speaks to members of the WISH Fiji Project Team. She is joined by the Chief Investigator for the project, Dr. Aaron Jenkins, Senior Research Fellow in Planetary Health at the University of Sydney and Edith Cowan University; Dr Donald Wilson, the Associate Dean for Research and Director of the new Fiji Institute of Pacific Health Research at Fiji National University; and Dr Stacey Jupiter, the Melanesia Regional Director for the Wildlife Conservation Society.
If you missed our first episode on WISH Fiji in July 2021, you may like to pause now and scroll back to listen to the previous podcast. You can find more information on WISH Fiji here:
https://indopacifichealthsecurity.dfat.gov.au/watershed-interventions-systems-health-wish
https://wishfiji.sydney.edu.au
https://fiji.wcs.org/Initiatives/Land-Sea-Management/Watershed-Interventions-for-Systems-Health-in-Fiji.aspx
https://www.facebook.com/wishfiji/
https://twitter.com/wishfiji?lang=en
Additionally, you can find information on the RISE Program here:
https://www.rise-program.org/ You can join the conversation on Twitter via @CentreHealthSec and @AusAmbRHS. Enjoy the episode.
Welcome to Contain This, brought to you by the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, an initiative of the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. This episode is hosted by Francette Dusan, Senior Advisor at the Centre.
In today’s episode, we speak to Dr Thu Anh Nguyen. Dr Thu Anh Nguyen is an infectious diseases and public health researcher. Her research focuses on detection and treatment of tuberculosis, HIV, hepatitis B and C, and more recently, Covid-19. You may recall we spoke to Thu Anh a year ago, about her work on V-Resist, a project addressing antimicrobial resistance in Vietnam. If you haven’t already, I suggest you pause now, and scroll back to August 2020 to listen to the previous podcast. You can find more information on V-Resist here:
https://indopacifichealthsecurity.dfat.gov.au/combating-emergence-and-spread-antimicrobial-resistant-infectious-diseases-vietnam-v-resist
Today we catch up on Thu Anh’s work supporting the Covid-19 response in Vietnam, and how the response has intersected with other work on infectious diseases including tuberculosis. We chat about research partnerships, how these can work to generate evidence to inform country priorities and some of the lesson’s Thu Anh has learnt about leadership and communication.
You can join the conversation via our social media channels. You can connect with us on Twitter via @CentreHealthSec and @AusAmbRHS.
Enjoy the episode.
SARS has a mortality rate of 20-30 times of COVID. For the next pandemic what will we do? Head of the Centre Robin Davies talks with Richard Hatchett from the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) about the work they are doing with the support of Australia and other countries to invest in research, production and distribution of vaccines to fight MERS, SARS and COVID. What are lessons for responding to emerging infectious diseases and the growing threat they pose to global health security?
“We're a little over a year and a half into our relationship with this virus, and we've already delivered according to WHO, somewhere on the order of three and a half billion doses of vaccine, which is miraculous. No one would have predicted, you know, by the middle of 2021, that 3.5 billion doses of vaccine would have would have been delivered…but it’s not fast enough.”
Links for further reading
https://cepi.net
https://indopacifichealthsecurity.dfat.gov.au/coalition-epidemic-preparedness-innovations-cepi
Tags: #COVID19, #EndPandemics, #COVAX
“Preparedness is always better than response.”
Indonesia is currently suffering another wave of COVID-19, in addition to 10 other major infectious diseases. In this episode we talk with Eka Wulan Cahyasari from the Indonesian Red Cross Society about how, with the support of the Centre, they are drawing upon existing pandemic preparedness tools and influential community volunteer networks to support surveillance, vaccine hesitancy programs and community resilience in the face of challenging times in Indonesia.
Links for further reading
https://www.ifrc.org/en/what-we-do/where-we-work/asia-pacific/indonesian-red-cross-society
https://indopacifichealthsecurity.dfat.gov.au/strengthening-front-line-health-secure-communities
Tags: #CommunityPreparedness #COVID-19 #Indonesia
How can we build community resilience in the face of both natural and man-made disasters that impact on our water and sanitation systems, our environment, and some of the world’s deadliest waterbourne diseases?
Community-led watershed interventions can both reduce water-related disease risks and improve downstream ecosystem conditions supporting the foundations for overall systems health. This episode talks with Fiji’s Ministry of Health, the Wildlife Conservation Society and the University of Sydney who together are implementing the WISH Fiji project. Supported by the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security and Bloomberg Philanthropies, the WISH project has succeeded in addressing water, sanitation and health issues using wholistic and multisectoral approaches. In the face of cyclones and a global pandemic, it’s bringing together environment and health sectors with communities, to change behaviour and embed practices to adapt and respond before and after disasters.
What are the lessons for a region adapting to the increasing impacts of climate change? We’re joined by Dr. Aaron Jenkins, a Senior Research Fellow in Planetary Health at the University of Sydney and Edith Cowan University; Dr. Sangeeta Mangubhai, Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society country program in Fiji, and Suli Batikawai, WASH Coordinator for Fiji’s Ministry of Health and Medical Service.
For more information about the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, visit our website: https://indopacifichealthsecurity.dfat.gov.au
Connect with us on Twitter via @CentreHealthSec and @AusAmbRHS
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Published: Jun. 15, 2021 @ 1PM Edit
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Links for further reading
https://indopacifichealthsecurity.dfat.gov.au/watershed-interventions-systems-health-wish
https://wishfiji.sydney.edu.au
https://fiji.wcs.org/Initiatives/Land-Sea-Management/Watershed-Interventions-for-Systems-Health-in-Fiji.aspx
https://www.facebook.com/wishfiji/
https://twitter.com/wishfiji?lang=en
Welcome back to Contain This.
This is Episode 3, Season 2, brought to you by the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security. Today, we bring you an Indo-Pacific Health Leaders interview hosted by Australian Ambassador for Regional Health Security, Dr Stephanie Williams.
Indonesia, a close neighbor of Australia has been hit hard with COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic. The COVID-19 vaccination is crucial to Indonesia's economic and social recovery.
Australia is proud to be supporting Indonesia's COVID vaccination program, including procuring vaccine doses, funding risk communication campaigns, and collaborating on vaccine development platforms. This support is funded by our new Regional Vaccine Access and Health Security Initiative.
Today's interview is with Dr Anung Sugihantono. Dr Agung is currently the Head of the Central Java Governor's COVID-19 taskforce and a senior health security adviser to the Australia-Indonesia Health Security Partnership, funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
For more information about the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, visit our website: https://indopacifichealthsecurity.dfat.gov.au
Connect with us on Twitter via @CentreHealthSec and @AusAmbRHS
Welcome back to Contain This.
This is Episode 2, Season 2, brought to you by the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security.
Today we bring you an Indo-Pacific Health Leaders interview hosted by Australian Ambassador for Regional Health Security, Dr Stephanie Williams, that looks at the global effort to fight Covid-19 whilst not losing any of the progress gained reducing the epidemics of HIV/AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis.
We were delighted to speak with Lady Roslyn Morauta. Lady Roslyn is a permanent resident of Papua New Guinea.
She has extensive experience in both the private and public sectors in PNG. Her voluntary work mostly based on health and HIV issues began when she was the First Lady of PNG and has intensified in the years since.
She was formerly the Chair of the PNG Country Coordinating Mechanism for the Global Fund to fights AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and in 2019, Lady Roslyn was appointed as the Vice Chair of the Global Fund's Board.
For more information about the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, visit our website: https://indopacifichealthsecurity.dfat.gov.au
Connect with us on Twitter via @CentreHealthSec and @AusAmbRHS.
Welcome to Season 2 of Contain This and Episode 29.
This week we discuss an essential step in the journey of the COVID-19 vaccine. We bring you insights on how the experts at Papua New Guinea’s Pharmaceutical Services Standards Branch were supported to assess the safety and efficacy of COVUD-19 vaccines in the last few months prior to the first doses arriving in their country.
In this episode, we spoke with Adjunct Professor John Skerritt who heads the Therapeutic Goods Administration within Australia’s Department of Health, Vali Karo, the Acting Manager and Mary Keurih, the product registration technical advisor at the Pharmaceutical Services Standards Branch within PNG’s Pharmaceutical Services Standards Branch.
We hope you enjoy the episode.
For more information about the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, visit our website indopacifichealthsecurity.dfat.gov.au/vaccine-access.
Connect with us on Twitter via @CentreHealthSec and @AusAmbRHS.
Welcome to Episode 28 of Contain This, brought to you by the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security. This week we bring you insights on the World Mosquito Program's Wolbachia method as a means of helping communities around the world prevent the spread of mosquito borne-disease.
In this episode we were delighted to speak with Professor Scott O'Neill, internationally recognised scientist and founder of the World Mosquito Program, and Professor Adi Utarini from the Department of Heath and Policy Management, Faculty of Medicine at Universitas Gadjah Mada.
Our discussion touches on everything from the discovery of a tiny bacterium called Wolbachia to the World Mosquito Program's gold-standard trial in Indonesia which provides the most compelling evidence yet for the Wolbachia method.
We hope you enjoy the episode.
For more information about the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, visit our website indopacifichealthsecurity.dfat.gov.au/vaccine-access.
Connect with us on Twitter via @CentreHealthSec and @AusAmbRHS
Welcome to Episode 27 of Contain This, brought to you by the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security. This week we bring you a special episode on the Covid-19 vaccine rollout in the Pacific Region, brought to you by two podcasts - Contain This, and Vosa, supported by the World Bank in the Pacific and Papua New Guinea. This episode is hosted by regular Vosa host Arieta Rika, and will be published across these two great programs.
In this episode, we’ll speak with Will Genia, Australian Rugby Union Player and UNICEF Ambassador, Dr Edith Kariko, World Bank Senior Health Specialist in PNG, and Francyne Jacklick-Wase, Deputy Secretary, Office of Health Planning, Policy Preparedness and Epidemiology in the Ministry of Health and Human Services. Together, we’ll look at what the vaccine means for the Pacific region, and what it means for each of our guests personally.
We hope you enjoy the episode. Be sure to check out previous episodes on Vosa via the link below.
For more information about the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, visit our website indopacifichealthsecurity.dfat.gov.au/vaccine-access
Connect with us on Twitter via @CentreHealthSec and @AusAmbRHS
Links:
Vosa: https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/vosa/id1529975088
WHO PNG: https://www.who.int/papuanewguinea
PNG Government’s Niupela Pasin guidelines: https://covid19.info.gov.pg/files/July%202020/07072020/Niupela%20Pasin%20%20Transition%20to%20New%20Normal%20handbook.pdf
Welcome to Episode 26 of Contain This, brought to you by the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security. This week, we're bringing you insights from the introduction of COVID-19 Vaccines, how they were developed, what it means for vaccines to be safe, and how they will be rolled out in the South Pacific and in particular, Fiji.
In this episode, we were delighted to speak with Professor Fiona Russell and Dr Rachel Devi.
Professor Fiona Russell is a paediatrician with qualifications in public health and epidemiology. In particular, she's a vaccination specialist and completed her PhD evaluating alternative pneumococcal vaccination schedules in infants in Fiji.
Dr Rachel Devi is a medical doctor who has previously worked as a National Advisor to the Family Health section of Fiji's Ministry of Health and the Watershed Interventions for Systems Health (WISH Fiji) project funded by the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security. This year, she was appointed as the Head of Fiji's Vaccine Task Force.
We hope you enjoy the episode.
For more information about the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, visit our website indopacifichealthsecurity.dfat.gov.au/vaccine-access.
Connect with us on Twitter via @CentreHealthSec and @AusAmbRHS
Welcome to Episode 25 of Contain This, brought to you by the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security. This week, we're bringing you the highlights from a special joint event held here at the Indo-Pacific Center for Health Security, and the Washington based Center for Strategic and International Studies Commission, on strengthening US Health Security.
We were delighted to host Dr. Anthony Fauci, Chief Medical adviser to the President, and Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the USA, in conversation with Professor Paul Kelly, Australia's Chief Medical Officer.
We hope you enjoy the episode.
For more information about the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, visit our website indopacifichealthsecurity.dfat.gov.au.
Connect with us on Twitter via @CentreHealthSec and @AusAmbRHS
This is Episode 24 of Contain This, brought to you by the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security. This episode is hosted by Damian Facciolo, an Adviser and workforce development specialist from the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security at Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
In this episode, Damian speaks with epidemiologists Ha-Linh Quach and Ngoc-Anh Hoang from the ASEAN-Australia Health Security Fellowship program, which provides scholarships for health professionals from Southeast Asia to complete the Master of Philosophy in Applied Epidemiology at the Australian National University. Both in their second year of the fellowship, Ha-Linh and Ngoc-Anh share highlights from their research and experiences working in public health, and provide insights into Vietnam's success in controlling outbreaks of COVID-19.
We hope you enjoy the episode.
For more information about the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, visit our website https://indopacifichealthsecurity.dfat.gov.au.
Connect with us on Twitter via @CentreHealthSec and @AusAmbRHS.
This is Episode 23 of Contain This, brought to you by the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security and is hosted by Australia’s Ambassador for Regional Health Security, Dr Stephanie Williams.
In this installment of the Indo-Pacific Health Leaders Series, Stephanie speaks with Dr Bouaphanh Khamphaphongphane on the Lao response to COVID-19 response.
Dr Khamphaphongphane is the Deputy Director of the National Centre for Laboratory and Epidemiology in the Lao People's Democratic Republic. She is also a supervisor of the Laos Field Epidemiology Training program and the ASEAN-Australia Health Security Fellowship. During the early days of COVID-19 outbreak, she supervised rapid response teams in provinces to look for suspect cases and worked closely with WHO to conduct COVID-19 testing.
We hope you enjoy the episode.
For more information about the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, visit our website https://indopacifichealthsecurity.dfat.gov.au.
Connect with us on Twitter via @CentreHealthSec and @AusAmbRHS.
Welcome back to Contain This. We hope that you had a safe and restful holiday period and are looking forward to bringing you more insightful discussions.
This is Episode 22 of Contain This, brought to you by the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security is hosted by Australian Ambassador for Regional Health Security, Dr Stephanie Williams.
Today, we hear key perspectives on public health in Kiribati for 2021, in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Eretii Timeon, the Public Health Director in the Ministry of Health for the Republic of Kiribati.
Trained as a nutritionist, Eretii has been working with the Ministry of Health for the past 20 years. The ministry employs 580 people to look after the health and well-being of a population of 110,000 located on 16 islands.
For more information about the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, visit our website https://indopacifichealthsecurity.dfat.gov.au.
Connect with us on Twitter via @CentreHealthSec and @AusAmbRHS.
Welcome to Episode 21 of Contain This, brought to you by the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, hosted by Head of Centre, Robin Davies.
Our Centre is based in Canberra on Ngunnawal land, and we work with partner governments in Southeast Asia and the Pacific to anticipate, avert and arrest infectious disease threats. Part of the way we do this is to tap into knowledge from Australia's premier research institutions.
Today, we hear about some new research that has the potential to change the way public health programs are planned in Australia and our region.
Kristy Crooks is an Aboriginal woman of the Euahlayi nation. She's working as an Aboriginal Program Manager with the communicable disease team at Hunter New England Health. She's also undertaking a PhD on how to engage First Nations people in public health emergencies. Peter Massey is a Clinical Nurse Consultant and program manager for health protection. Also with Hunter New England Health. He's worked in the Pacific, particularly Solomon Islands in PNG on infectious disease control and tuberculosis recently has been working with Kristy and other Aboriginal health workers and researchers on pandemic preparedness and response.
For more information about the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, visit our website https://indopacifichealthsecurity.dfat.gov.au.
Connect with us on Twitter via @CentreHealthSec and @AusAmbRHS.
This is our final episode for 2020. Thank you for tuning in, we look forward to sharing more episodes with you in the New Year.
Welcome to the second episode in our series exploring issues related to COVID-19 vaccines in our region, as we plan Australia's $500 million Regional Vaccine Access and Health Security Initiative.
In the week before the Global Health Security Agenda Ministerial Meetings in November this year, the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security hosted a side event on COVID-19 vaccine financing. The Centre represents Australia as one of the leads on the Sustainable Financing for Preparedness Action Package.
Why this side event on vaccine financing? Well, when safe and effective vaccines for COVID do become available, they will be needed for both preparedness and response. There might be sufficient funding available in the short term, but not enough vaccines to go around. In the medium term, we might have the reverse problem, insufficient funding, and too many COVID-19 vaccines. So the purpose of this event was to bring together some key partners in vaccine financing.
There are already several mechanisms established, including the COVAX Facility, and recent announcements from the multilateral development banks for vaccine financing. In this space, we see opportunity, and as always, risk. So we brought together six panelists from around the world to discuss what successful coordination looks like, with our principal goal being that developing countries get equitable, affordable and timely access to safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines.
We heard from Aparnaa Somanathan, the Practice Manager for Health, Nutrition and Population for the East Asia Pacific Region at the World Bank. Patrick Osewe, Chief of the Health Sector Group at the Asian Development Bank, and Saul Walker, the Deputy Director for Vaccines, Therapeutics and Diagnostics at the UK Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office. Santiago Cornejo from Gavi has recently been appointed as the Director of the Country Engagement for the Office of the COVAX Facility. And for a pharmaceutical industry perspective, we were joined by Adrian Thomas, Global Vice President of Global Health at Johnson and Johnson.
We are pleased to bring you the highlights of our hour long discussion.
For more information about the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, visit our website https://indopacifichealthsecurity.dfat.gov.au.
Connect with us on Twitter via @CentreHealthSec and @AusAmbRHS.
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Welcome to episode 20 of Contain This, brought to you by the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security. This episode is hosted by Camilla Burkot, a senior adviser with the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Vaccine Access Taskforce, which will oversee the Australian Government’s recently announced Regional Vaccine Access and Health Security Initiative.
This initiative will help to ensure that people across the Pacific and Southeast Asia are able to access safe, effective and affordable COVID-19 vaccines when they become available by supporting both procurement of vaccine doses and strengthening immunization policy and delivery pathways in our region. On today’s show, we will discuss the issue of vaccine uptake in the Indo-Pacific region with two experts in the fields of vaccine development and delivery from Australia and Indonesia. We'll also hear from the field with the story of a senior immunisation nurse from Tonga.
Camilla will begin by talking to Professor Julie Leask from the Susan Wakil School of Nursing and Midwifery at the University of Sydney. She's a member of the Australian Regional Immunisation Alliance, visiting professorial fellow at the National Centre for Immunization Research and Surveillance and holds a range of advisory roles with the World Health Organization. In addition, Julie has recently been appointed to the Expert Advisory Group that will guide the new Regional Vaccine Access and Health Security Initiative.
You will then hear from Sister Afu Tei about her experience as an immunisation nurse in Tonga. Sister Afu Tei is the Supervising Public Health Sister, Reproductive Health Project Co-ordinator and National EPI Co-ordinator in Tonga.
Lastly, Camilla speaks with Professor Amin Soebandrio is a lecturer in clinical microbiology at University’s Indonesia and chairman of the Eijkman Institute for Molecular Biology, a nonprofit research body under the Ministry of Research and Technology and National Agency for Research and Innovation located in Jakarta. He is also honorary professor at the University of Sydney Medical School has played a key role in building strong relationships between the Indonesian and Australian medical research communities. At the beginning of the pandemic, Professor Amin oversaw the laboratory that analyzed samples from the earliest COVID-19 cases in Indonesia. Now, the institute’s work has turned towards vaccine development.
For more information about the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, visit our website https://indopacifichealthsecurity.dfat.gov.au.
Connect with us on Twitter via @CentreHealthSec and @AusAmbRHS
We air an episode every fortnight so make sure you subscribe to receive our updates.
Enjoy,
Contain This Team
Welcome to Episode 19 of Contain This, brought to you by the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, hosted by Head of Centre Robin Davies.
Today on the show Robin talks to Dr David Nabarro, a British medical doctor who has been at the forefront of international organisations as a special adviser to the United Nations and the World Health Organization.
Since 2009, he has been the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary General for Food Security and Nutrition. He oversaw the global effort to contain the 2014-15 Outbreak of Ebola as Special Envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General.
In 2018, he was appointed Professor at the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London. And most recently he was named as one of six Special Envoys from the Director-General of the World Health Organization to help respond to the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Robin is joined by panellists from around the region, who you'll hear ask questions during the episode.
For more information about the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, visit our website https://indopacifichealthsecurity.dfat.gov.au.
Connect with us on Twitter via @CentreHealthSec and @AusAmbRHS.
We air an episode every fortnight so make sure you subscribe to receive our updates.
Enjoy,
Contain This Team
Welcome to Episode 18 of Contain This, brought to you by the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, hosted by Dr Lara Andrews.
Today on the show, Lara speaks to Gillian McKay and Matelita Seva-Cadravula, on the topic of sexual and reproductive health and rights during a health emergency.
For more information about the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, visit our website https://indopacifichealthsecurity.dfat.gov.au
Connect with us on Twitter via @CentreHealthSec and @AusAmbRHS
We are an episode every fortnight so make sure you subscribe to receive our updates.
Enjoy,
Contain This Team
Welcome to the third episode of our Indo-Pacific Health Leaders Series. Today, Australian Ambassador for Regional Health Security Dr Stephanie Williams speaks to Dr Josephine Herman, Secretary of Health in the Cook Islands.
Dr Josephine is a physician who holds a Masters in Public Health, a Diploma in Obstetrics and Gynaecology and a PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Auckland.
She was appointed as the Secretary of Health for the Cook Islands in June 2018 and is currently the vice-chair of the Pacific Heads of Health.
For more information about the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, visit our website https://indopacifichealthsecurity.dfat.gov.au.
Connect with us on Twitter via @CentreHealthSec and @AusAmbRHS.
We air an episode every fortnight so make sure you subscribe to receive our updates.
Enjoy,
Contain This Team
This week Dr Lara Andrews, Acting Director at the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security talks to Dr Roopa Dhatt, Executive Director of Women in Global Health.
Roopa served as the President of the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations and is now a practicing primary care physician in Washington D.C.
In this episode, Roopa talks about her identity as an Indian-born American woman shaped her motivation to help found the advocacy group Women in Global Health more than five years ago.
On the 17th of September, Women in Global Health held a virtual summit on the sidelines of the United National General Assembly where countries around the world, including Australia, reaffirmed their commitment to the Sustainable Development Goal number 5 - to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls – and gender responsive leadership during COVID-19 response.
Enjoy this episode with Lara Andrews talking to Roopa Dhatt.
For more information about the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, visit our website https://indopacifichealthsecurity.dfat.gov.au
Connect with us on Twitter via @CentreHealthSec.
We air an episode every fortnight so make sure you subscribe to receive our updates.
Enjoy,
Contain This Team
Today on the show, we have Aalisha Sahu Khan and Professor Patrick Reading. Aalisha is the Head of Health Protection at the Fiji Ministry of Health and Medical Services, where she oversees a broad portfolio that includes environmental health, health emergencies and climate change and communicable disease control. Patrick is a scientist and educator at the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza based at the Doherty Institute at the University of Melbourne.
In this episode, Patrick talks about the Doherty Institute’s partnership with The Pacific Community, SPC, to increase laboratory capacity in Pacific Island countries to test for the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19.
In addition, SPC has been working with the WHO Joint Incident management Team lab cell and the Pacific Islands Society for Pathology have been working on a protocol whereby up to 4 or 6 samples could be tested in in a single GeneXpert cartridge to scale up testing. Patrick will give us an update on Doherty’s support for this development.
Aalisha reflects on the work that has gone into expanding the Fiji Centre for Disease Control's capacity to be able to test for the SARS-CoV-2 virus and what having domestic capacity has meant for preparedness and response.
For more information about the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, visit our website https://indopacifichealthsecurity.dfat.gov.au
Connect with us on Twitter via @CentreHealthSec.
We air an episode every fortnight so make sure you subscribe to receive our updates.
Enjoy,
Contain This Team
Welcome to the second insightful episode of our special Indo-Pacific Health Leaders series, where Ambassador for Regional Health Security, Dr Stephanie Williams, talks to the new Secretary for Australia's Department of Health, Dr. Brendan Murphy. They discuss his leadership and the challenges during the early outbreak of COVID-19 in Australia during his time as Australia’s Chief Medical Officer.
This week we launch a special series where Australia’s Ambassador for Regional Health Security, Dr Stephanie Williams, interviews leaders in the Pacific and Southeast Asia about how they have faced being a leader and health challenges during the current COVID-19 crisis.
These frank conversations begin with Dr Takeshi Kasai, the Regional Director for the Western Pacific Office of the World Health Organization. As Regional Director, Dr Kasai is responsible for convening and communicating with partner governments on the health and well-being of 1.9 billion of the world's population from Fiji in the East, to China and Vietnam in the West and Japan to the North. A physician by training, Dr. Kasai has been involved in responding to outbreaks and crises, including avian influenza in Hong Kong and Japan, the 1995 Kobe earthquake and the SARS crisis. He has worked for WHO for more than 15 years and was instrumental in developing and implementing the Asia Pacific strategy for emerging diseases and public health emergencies, which guides member states ongoing improvements to readiness and response.
In this week’s episode we discuss Vietnam’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic and antimicrobial drug resistance with Dr Guy Thwaites, Director of the Oxford University Clinical Research Unit and Wellcome Trust Major Overseas Program in Vietnam, Dr Thu Anh Nguyen, Country Director, Woolcock Institute and Clinical Senior Lecturer at University of Sydney and Dr Gregory Fox, Project lead for the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security’s AMR V-RESIST project in Vietnam and Clinical Academic Lead (Research) for the Faculty of Medicine and Health at Cumberland Campus.
Since this interview was recorded, Vietnam has recorded a large outbreak in the coastal city of Da Nang. As discussed by our guests, the government is taking early action when cases are identified. In the case of Da Nang they imposed an immediate lockdown and have launched widespread testing of the city’s 1.1 million residents.
In this episode we talk to Dr Leanne Robinson and Dr Moses Laman and discuss the emergence of drug resistant malaria in PNG, and the work they are involved in through the STRIVE PNG project; a project that builds on decades of close working ties between PNG and Australian scientists, and an initiative that the Indo Pacific Centre for Health Security is proud to have helped establish.
Leanne is one of Australia's leading vector borne disease researchers. She is the head of the Vector Borne Disease and Tropical Public Health Group at the Burnet Institute in Melbourne. She has spent 10 years living and working in PNG. In parallel to her groundbreaking research, Leanne is committed to developing national capacity to conduct research across the countries of the Indo Pacific.
Moses is a principal Research Fellow, and the current head of the Vector Borne Disease Unit at the Papua New Guinea Institute for Medical Research. He is a young affiliate of the Third World Academy of Science, a general paediatrician and adjunct senior research fellow at the School of Medicine and pharmacology at the University of Western Australia.
In the past 10 days, the total number of COVID-19 cases in PNG has risen past 60. As the country works to contain the outbreak. The PNG government is assessing the situation and alongside the WHO, the Australian Government and other development partners, is bolstering emergency response efforts. This interview was recorded before the current increasing COVID-19 cases in PNG. It shows how strong relationships have been built between Australian institutions and the PNG government to anticipate and arrest infectious diseases within the country.
Welcome to Episode #10 of Contain This, brought to you by the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security and hosted by Adam Craig.
On the episode we have Elizabeth Iro - Chief Nursing Officer, World Health Organisation and Michele Rumsey - Director, World Health Organisation Collaborating Centre for Nursing, Midwifery & Health Development at University of Technology Sydney.
Elizabeth, a Cook Islander, is the Chief Nurse at the World Health Organisation in Geneva. Prior to joining the WHO, she served as the Secretary of Health in the Cook Islands and before that was the country’s Chief Nurse. In these roles she spearheaded health system reform with a focus on planning and workforce development. Nursing is in Elizabeth’s blood. In this episode she speaks passionately about the role nurses from around the globe are playing, under increasingly stressful conditions, to ensure health systems continue to function and health security for all is achieved.
Michele, also started her career in nursing. She took this experience to the global stage and now as an academic, advises on international health care and policy in the areas of human resources for health, health system strengthening, capacity development, stakeholder participation and regulation. Michele is the Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Nursing, Midwifery and Health Development based at UTS. The Centre is the only one of its kind in the South Pacific. Under Michele’s leadership the Centre has carried out 50 projects in 25 countries. She was awarded the UTS Human Rights Award in 2014 for her work in the South Pacific.
This episode celebrates 2020, The International Year of Nurses and Midwives. Elizabeth and Michele reflect on what this year means to the nursing profession, they talk about the challenges of being a nurse during a pandemic and propose actions that ought to be taken to address issues as broad as chronic work force shortages, achieving universal health coverage, gender inequity and the impacts of power imbalances in nursing and health care more broadly.
For more information on the State of the World’s Nursing Report, click on the link below
https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/nursing-report-2020
For more information on a WHO Report related to the nursing workforce recommended by the guests, please click on the link below:
https://www.who.int/hrh/com-heeg/en/
For more information about the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, visit our website https://indopacifichealthsecurity.dfat.gov.au.
Connect with us on Twitter via @CentreHealthSec.
We air an episode every fortnight so make sure you subscribe to receive our updates.
Enjoy,
Contain This Team
Welcome to Episode #9 of Contain This, brought to you by the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security and hosted by Adam Craig.
On the episode we have Dr Mark Schipp and Dr Anna Okello.
In 2011 Mark was appointed Chief Veterinary Officer of Australia. He was also appointed as Australia’s Delegate at the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) where he is also the elected President of the OIE World Assembly. Mark leads Australia’s national responses to emergency animal disease incursions. He works to strengthen the veterinary services of countries in our region so they are able to detect and respond to emerging infectious diseases of concern to both human and animal health. He has been active in leading Australian agriculture’s response to the global threat of antimicrobial resistance.
Anna is the Research Program Manager of Livestock Systems at Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), providing Animal Health and One Health expertise to the portfolio. Since graduating with a veterinary degree from Melbourne University in 2002, the majority of Anna’s career has been spent working in the veterinary public health and livestock development sectors, including 10 years researching zoonotic Neglected Tropical Disease control in sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. Anna completed a PhD in political science (public health policy) at the University of Edinburgh’s Centre for African Studies in 2012, and has worked in various project management and technical advisory roles for international NGOs, the Australian government, the World Health Organization and the University of Edinburgh.
In this episode, Adam, Mark and Anna discuss biosecurity, wet markets and their respective roles in Australia's response to disease risk.
For more information about the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, visit our website https://indopacifichealthsecurity.dfat.gov.au.
Connect with us on Twitter via @CentreHealthSec.
We air an episode every fortnight so make sure you subscribe to receive our updates.
Enjoy,
Contain This Team
Welcome to Episode #7 of Contain This, brought to you by the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security and hosted by Adam Craig.
Today on the show we have Lauro Vives and Michael Nunan.
Specializing in international affairs, regional cooperation, trade reforms, poverty alleviation and ICT for Development challenges, Lauro has been a trusted advisor to the Asian Development Bank, the World Bank, the United Nations, USAID and the Millennium Challenge Corporation for the past 15 years. Lauro is now Director of International Development for Canada-based health management consulting company Gevity Consulting
Michael is the Project Director at Tupaia, working on health resource mapping across Asia-Pacific.Tupaia is a data aggregation, analysis and visualisation platform that works to map health systems in the Indo-Pacific region. This is used to strengthen services, manage projects and help governments fairly distribute resources. You can learn more here https://info.tupaia.org/about-us/
In this episode, Adam, Lauro and Michael discuss health in the Pacific region, including challenges, resources and goals for the future.
For more information about the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, visit our website https://indopacifichealthsecurity.dfat.gov.au
Connect with us on Twitter via @centrehealthsec
We air an episode every fortnight so make sure you subscribe to receive our updates.
Enjoy,
Contain This Team
Welcome to Episode #6 of Contain This, brought to you by the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security and hosted by Adam Craig.
Today on the show we have Dr. Rob Grenfell and Debbie Eagles. Rob is the Director of Health and Biosecurity at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia’s National Science Agency, or the CSIRO as it’s known. Rob is a qualified public health physician and GP, with almost 30 years’ experience working across health in the public and private sectors. Debbie is the Deputy Director of the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness within the CSIRO and located in Geelong, Victoria.
The Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security works closely with CSIRO to build capacity in our region. The study of zoonotic diseases has been thrown into the spotlight since the outbreak of COVID-19. In this episode, we discuss why that is.
In this episode we also feature a brief discussion with Andy Yombo, a CSIRO counterpart in Port Moresby working on the African Swine Fever outbreak in PNG.
For more information about the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, visit out website - https://indopacifichealthsecurity.dfat.gov.au
Connect with us on Twitter - https://twitter.com/centrehealthsec/
We air an episode every fortnight so make sure you subscribe to receive our updates.
Enjoy,
Contain This Team
Welcome to Episode #5 of Contain This, brought to you by the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security and hosted by Adam Craig.
In this episode we have Adam Kamradt-Scott and Sara Davies. Adam is an Associate Professor at the University of Sydney specialising in global health security and international relations. His research and teaching explore how governments and multilateral organizations respond to adverse health events such as epidemics and pandemics, as well as emerging health and security challenges.
Sara is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow an a Professor at the Centre for Governance and Public Policy at Griffith University. Her research interests revolve around global health governance, health diplomacy and the prevention of sexual violence in conflict situations. Sara has published widely. She is the author of three books including Disease Diplomacy, which she co-authored with Adam Karmadt-Scott.
For more information about the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, visit our website - https://indopacifichealthsecurity.dfat.gov.au
Connect with us on Twitter - https://twitter.com/centrehealthsec/
We air an episode every fortnight so make sure you subscribe to receive our updates.
Enjoy,
Contain This Team
Welcome to Episode #4 of Contain This, brought to you by the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security. We’re excited to be relaunching the podcast. There’s never been a more important time to discuss health security.
In this episode, we introduce Dr. Stephanie Williams, Australia’s Regional Ambassador for Health Security. You can learn more about Steph and her role as Ambassador here - https://indopacifichealthsecurity.dfat.gov.au/ambassador
We also introduce Adam Craig, our new host. You’ll be hearing Adam’s voice in every episode of Contain This. You can learn more about Adam and his background here - https://research.unsw.edu.au/people/mr-adam-thomas-craig-0
In this episode, Steph and Adam speak with the Executive Producer of Contain This Rachel Mason Nunn. Rachel is also the Host of Good Will Hunters, and CEO of Good Will Media and Communications. The team discusses what the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security is doing in response to Covid-19 and how the health security of the Indo-Pacific region has been magnified during this time. They also discuss what you can expect in future episodes of Contain This.
For more information about the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, visit our website - https://indopacifichealthsecurity.dfat.gov.au
Connect with us on Twitter - https://twitter.com/centrehealthsec/
We’ll be airing an episode every fortnight so make sure you subscribe to receive our updates.
Enjoy,
Contain This Team
What happens when we become sick and how does good health rely on a strong system? On this episode we look at the challenges a young health system faces in a developing context. Our Adviser, Camilla Burkot interviews Dr Josh Francis, the Chief Investigator for the research project STRONG TL- to talk about the health needs of Timor-Leste, superbugs that are not super and more on the STRONG TL projected funded by the Australian Aid program through the Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security.
In June 2018 the US FDA approved the drug moxidectin for the treatment of River Blindness. How did this drug with no market and no chance of profit get through FDA approval? This podcast is a tale of two cities; two people on opposite sides of the world came together to produce a new drug to treat the disease. Mark Sullivan, Founder & Managing Director of Medicines for Global Health and John Reeder, the Director of the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases tell us how this orphaned drug came to be and how it will contribute to the elimination of River Blindness.
Head of Centre, Robin Davies joins our pilot episode to talk about some of the work The Centre does. We also talk about our annual event - the Ruth Bishop Address. We leave you with the audio from the 2019 Address, presented by Professor Sharon Lewin. The audio was recorded at the venue and we apologise in advance for the low quality recording.
IVCC CEO Dr Nick Hamon and consultants Dr Michael MacDonald & Vasanthan John Paul talk about innovative vector control tools, the market and regulatory landscape for these tools, and the importance of research and development to reduce malaria, dengue, Zika, and other mosquito-borne diseases. For more information visit our website.