Margaret Leong1
1 Pacific Community, SPC – Private Mail Bag – Suva, Fiji
In February 2020, the Public Health Division of the Pacific Community recruited a new fulltime infection prevention and control (IPC) position with funds provided by the Australia’s Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security. The purpose of this role is to provide technical support to member Pacific Island Countries and territories (PICTs), to enhance policy and institutional environment for IPC, to strengthen national and healthcare facility level capacity to better respond to public health disease outbreaks and disease threats.
A short survey carried out in 2020 by the Pacific Joint Incident Management Team for COVID-19 highlighted that IPC training was a top priority in terms of PICTs preparations/response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We responded to PICTs needs by providing technical support for IPC standard operating procedures, training and webinars in addition to provision of PPE, hand hygiene supplies medical equipment and consumables.
Looking beyond COVID-19, the fragile IPC infrastructure throughout the PICTs coupled with poor political will for IPC had contributed to limited implementation of the WHO minimum requirements for IPC, this also includes the lack of IPC specific preparedness and response outbreak plans at healthcare and facility levels, highlights the critical need to strengthen the minimum requirements for IPC.
Other lessons learned include our slow response to guide countries on PPE specifications and procedures on donning and doffing in early 2020 created a lot of confusion. Misuse of PPE contributed to shortages of PPE, and other medical supplies including hand hygiene.