Background:

The Advance Warning and Response Exemplars (AWARE) project was inspired by the success of the COVID-19 Response project under the Exemplars in Global Health research program. As the COVID-19 pandemic underscored the importance of early detection and rapid response systems, the need for implementing and scaling up these systems for a more comprehensive approach to pandemic preparedness became clear.  

Recognizing this need, Brown University’s Pandemic Center launched the AWARE project, designed to investigate positive outliers in Advance Warning and Response (AW&R) systems that are essential for mitigating infectious disease threats with epidemic and pandemic potential, including climate-sensitive infectious diseases (CSIDs).  

The AWARE project aims to enhance global health security by improving the timeliness and accuracy of identifying emerging health risks. It aims to identify both the barriers and facilitators to the development, implementation, and sustainability of successful AW&R systems, with a focus on integrating climate and digital data to predict and respond to outbreaks. The project not only strengthens the knowledge base around advanced warning in low-resource settings, but it also promotes evidence-based policymaking to prepare for future infectious disease emergencies. 

AWARE is particularly focused on identifying best practices and core capacities in low-resource environments to support multi-sectoral outbreak response and informed decision-making. OUCRU Vietnam is one of four in-country research partners (ICRPs) selected for its expertise in disease surveillance, data modelling, and capacity for effective outbreak response.  

Our team, led by Associate Professor Jennifer Ilo Van Nuil, is conducting in-depth qualitative research and quantitative analysis to understand the factors that contribute to successful AW&R systems in Vietnam. 

Aims:

Our goal is to examine barriers and facilitators to developing, implementing, and sustaining robust advance warning and response. 

We aim to identify positive outliers in early warning, early detection, and outbreak response to significant public health events, including outbreaks of climate-sensitive infectious diseases (CSIDs) and those with epidemic and pandemic potential. 

In Vietnam, the project’s two main objectives are: 

1. Explore the current policy and practices (formal and informal) surrounding dengue prevention and control measures in Vietnam. 
2. Identify and describe the potential implementation barriers and facilitators with multiple end-users, such as policy stakeholders, hospital management, and the public, to assess the integration of Dengue Advanced Readiness Tools (DART) in dengue prevention and control measures.

The mixed method design includes a policy review of current policy on infection prevention and control in Vietnam and in-depth qualitative research using key informant interviews to explore current practices and potential barriers and facilitators for DART integration.