Public Health Intelligence in times of COVID-19: Experiences and Lessons Learned 1

Monday, 6 December 2021

Moderator

Esther Hamblion

Epidemiologist, World Health Organization (WHO)

Dr Esther Hamblion is an epidemiologist in the World Health Organisation’s Health Emergencies Programme and is currently acting unit head of the Public Health Intelligence unit at WHO HQ in Geneva, Switzerland. Previously Esther was at the WHO’s Regional Office for Africa and prior to that based in Liberia where she led the WHO epidemiology team in country during the Ebola response and subsequent recovery and health system strengthening phases. Esther previously worked at Public Health England in the field epidemiology services. She has a doctorate in epidemiology from University College London and an MSc in epidemiology from Imperial College London.

Speakers

Blanche Greene-Cramer

Lead, COVID Intelligence, Information Products, and GIS Team, World Health Organization (WHO)

Blanche Greene-Cramer is an Epidemiologist with the Health Emergency Information & Risk Assessment department at the World Health Organization HQ in Geneva, Switzerland. Prior to joining WHO in 2019, Greene-Cramer was an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer and Emergency Public Health Epidemiologist with the Emergency Response and Recovery Branch in the Division of Global Health Protection at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, GA. Her work has focused on outbreak detection, pandemic response, strengthening research in complex humanitarian and emergency settings including evaluating maternal and perinatal deaths documentation and assessing the burden of noncommunicable diseases and mental illness and barriers to care among conflict affected populations. Blanche currently leads the COVID-19 Intelligence, Information Products and GIS team within the Epidemiology Pillar of the WHO Headquarters COVID-19 response.

Jordi Borrell Pique

Epidemic Intelligence Scientific Officer, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)

Jordi Borrell Pique is a scientific officer working in the epidemic intelligence team at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, in Stockholm (Sweden). He is a public health expert with a specialization on health economics by the University of Gothenburg (Sweden). His professional trajectory in the preparedness and response field includes working experience in Equatorial Guinea and the Public Health Agency of Barcelona province before his current position at ECDC. He has a strong interest in the areas of epidemic intelligence and early detection activities. He is also an analyst from the GHSI community and is a current user of the EIOS platform.

Souha Bougatef

Director health Surveillance, National Observatory of New and Emerging Diseases, MoH Tunisia

- Responsible for the STAMINA project, Smart Support Platform for Pandemic Prediction and Management, Horizon 2020 Research and innovation Program. since septembre 2020. - Responsible for the implementation of Event Based Surveillance EBS and EIOS, EMRO, since January 2021 - Responsible for the implementation of the information management application for strengthening the health surveillance system: information system for epidemiological surveillance of diseases in Tunisia "EPIsurVeille", since March 2019. - Responsible for the implementation of the 2P2RmpeT “Preparedness, response and resilience plan for diseases with epidemic potential in Tunisia” and implementation procedures, since June 2015. - Responsible of the West Nile human surveillance system in Tunisia since 2011.

Tomoe Shimada

National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID), Japan

Dr Tomoe Shimada is a medical doctor and started her career as a medical epidemiologist in 2007 after obtained Master of Public Health degree from Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University. She joined Infectious Disease Surveillance Center of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Japan in 2008 and engages in field epidemiology and infectious disease intelligence activities including outbreak investigation. She and her colleagues employ the EIOS as pilot users during G20 Osaka Summit and the Rugby World Cup in 2019. In 2021, enhanced event-based surveillance was implemented during the Tokyo 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games by using multiple sources including EIOS.

Paula Caceres-Soto

Head of World Animal Health Information and Analysis Department, World Organization for Animal Health (OIE)

Dr Paula Cáceres, veterinarian with a Master of Science (MSc) in Veterinary Preventive Medicine and Epidemiology, is the Head of the World Animal Health Information and Analysis Department (WAHIAD) of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). Dr Cáceres joined the OIE in June 2010 as a veterinary epidemiologist. Previously, she worked in Chile for 11 years in the field of animal health, in three different ministries: the Ministry of the Economy, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. She was also a lecturer in veterinary epidemiology at the University of Viña del Mar, Chile.