PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC -The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) has warned that the region is unprepared for another pandemic.
“We are not prepared as yet. CARPHA would have learned, and COVID-19 would have shown us there were many gaps. Gaps in terms of electronic surveillance systems. The big thing for the Caribbean is that if you’re moving very quickly between countries, you need to know something real-time, so we lack functional early warning systems,” said CARPHA’s interim executive director, Dr Lisa Indar.
Speaking at the regional consultation workshop on its Pandemic Fund Project, she said the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic highlighted the various gaps in the region’s pandemic preparedness.
“We also learned that we had to build capacity. However, regarding building capacity in the Caribbean, you cannot apply a ‘one shoe fits all’ policy. Some countries were tiny, and you needed to train them in identification. Then they were the big countries, so you had to have a different type of capacity building.”
Indar said although the Caribbean was relatively small, transporting samples for testing within the region could be troublesome.
“Sample transport was another issue when all the planes stopped flying for COVID. Even now, there is a bit of a distance regarding flying samples. We have to find ways and ask ourselves, ‘How do you get samples quickly?’”
She said greater coordination among regional health bodies in the Caribbean is needed if the region is to deal with another pandemic effectively.
The Pandemic Fund Project was established in September 2022 and is part of CARPHA’s pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response (PPR) program. It is a financing mechanism dedicated to providing multi-year grants to help low—and middle-income countries better prepare for future pandemics.
The grant money can be used to improve high-priority PPR capabilities, such as comprehensive disease surveillance and early warning systems (EWS), laboratory systems, human resources, and public health and community workforce capacity.
The fund’s first call for proposals aims to reduce the public health impact of pandemics in the Caribbean through PPR.
The project comprises five components: strengthening and expanding integrated EWS, expanding laboratory systems, workforce development, regional strategic coordination, collaboration and commitment to pandemic response, monitoring, evaluating, and project management.
Indar said she intended to use the fund as a catalyst to encourage change management.
“I intend to change how we operate and our thinking. We must believe that we, as the Caribbean, could lead in this real-time surveillance system. If something is happening, we must know and be able to detect and respond quickly. We must have the regional coordination to support it.”
Trinidad and Tobago Health Minister Terrence Deyalsingh said the fund came at a reasonable time, noting that infectious diseases continue to wreak havoc on the public health systems of many countries.
“Between 2000 and 2024, the world faced the COVID pandemic, the SARS and MERS epidemics, and the swine flu. We have also seen recently a resurgence of measles and dengue with over 62 million deaths across these dark times.”
“Diseases such as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), cholera, dengue fever, chikungunya, zika, norovirus and other foodborne diseases, antimicrobial resistant organisms, influenza, and covid have all been major causes of epidemics at the local, regional and as well as a global level,” he said, urging the various country representatives to ask themselves hard questions and provide honest answers.
“If another pandemic would unexpectedly come tomorrow… are your health systems ready to respond? If not, what changes are needed for them to be prepared? Are operational digitized surveillance and laboratory systems supported by an adequate workforce to promptly identify new and emerging public health threats?
“What did you learn from COVID-19, and what are you doing differently? Are your systems proactive or reactive? Are you ready?
“This fund allows investments towards coordinated action to build stronger, more resilient health systems and mobilize additional resources for pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response across three high-impact areas.”
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