COVID Surveillance Project

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s Division of Global Health Protection has been collaborating with the Ministry of Public Health and provincial offices in Thailand to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic by conducting surveillance to identify SARS-CoV-2 infection among febrile patients aged 2 years presenting to six hospitals along the Thai-Myanmar and Thai-Laos borders. This work is helping to strengthen surveillance by expanding geographic coverage of specimen and data collection, increase disease monitoring and use for decision making, and understand patients knowledge and perceptions about COVID to inform mitigation strategies in underserved settings in Thailand. CDC’s influenza work at its Influenza Regional Hub in Thailand is focused on enhanced surveillance and laboratory capacity for the timely detection and characterization of viruses with pandemic potential, as well as efficient detection of seasonal influenza viruses, respiratory viruses, and novel emerging variants. CDC collaborates with and provides technical assistance to Thailand, Bangladesh, Lao PDR, and Indonesia. In Thailand, the CDC influenza team supports multiple projects, including: a network of sentinel influenza surveillance sites, laboratory testing and sequencing capacities, clinical trials of locally-produced vaccine, updating clinical guidelines for influenza treatment, research to quantify protective effects of influenza vaccination in vulnerable populations, and pandemic preparedness and rapid response trainings. During the SARS CoV-2 pandemic, the influenza team leveraged surveillance platforms and cohort studies for influenza to monitor transmission of SARS CoV-2 and vaccine effectiveness. Data were used to inform the public health response to the pandemic.Video Transcript: https://www.cdc.gov/globalhealth/video/transcripts/covid-surveillance-project-thailand-transcript2.docx

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