The 1st National Stakeholders Meeting for the Lao component has been held in Vientiane on 04 April 2018.
During the opening speeches, Dr. Paul Brey, Director of the Institut Pasteur in Lao PDR highlighted the new challenge of vector control in the context of rapid urbanization and insecticide resistance, Dr. Chanthalai Xayavong, Head of the CDC Division at the Vientiane Capital Health Department, reminded that the control of dengue is under the responsibility of Health Authorities and also of the community and he reaffirmed his full support to ECOMORE project, finally Mr. Khonsavanh Xaymoungkhoun from AFD office in Vientiane stressed the role of unprecedented migration from neighboring countries in the possible emergence of diseases outbreaks and recalled the strong commitment of AFD in Public health through several projects.
After a presentation of an overview of ECOMORE2 project as a whole, scientific presentations from National Authorities described the Dengue Prevention Strategic Plan in Vientiane and the Challenges of Waste Management in Vientiane; this presentation and following lively debate showed strong concern of participants and the importance of this issue for public health. The experts from Institut Pasteur du Laos presented the epidemiological, lab diagnosis and entomological components of the study conducted in Lao PDR; at each decision level, hospital, district authorities, army, participants retold the importance of feedback from laboratory to the field. Participants were also highly interested by the demonstration of the In2care system thanks to a didactic movie and by handling the trap to familiarize with. The partners, IRD and CNRS explained their original tools as the outbreak simulator that can generate an early warning by integrating data on epidemiological and virological surveillance, on meteorological variations and movement of population. All participants were also very interested by the dynamic maps produced with retrospective data of dengue cases and their clusterization followed by their extension in the city of Vientiane.
Finally, Marc Grandadam, the PI of the ECOMORE project in Lao PDR stated the importance of instigating an active Knowledge Translation platform to ensure that the results of the ECOMORE project will be put into action to practically improve dengue control in Vientiane. It is critical to establish Working Groups bringing together researchers, clinicians, decision-makers, authorities and community who should be the main users of research findings. Preliminary discussions showed that the stakeholders are very motivated to apply the new In2care system on a large scale in Vientiane city and also to improve the waste management to really control mosquito and especially Aedes population. 2018 is the “Year of Tourism” in Lao PDR and it offers an opportunity to develop a label of “Aedes free” for hotels (168 hotels listed on booking.com in Vientiane) to promote the vector control in collaboration with the District Administration Offices.
In conclusion, this meeting brought together Authorities from Vientiane Capital Health Department, Vientiane Urban Development and Administration Authority, Institute of Diseases Prevention of Lao Army, 6 District Administration Offices, Department of Housing and Urban Planning from the Ministry of Public Work and Transportation, NCLE (National Center for Laboratory and Epidemiology), with Medical Doctors / Directors of Setthathirath Hospital, Children Hospital and DCDC, with Education representatives from the National University and the Department of Education of Vientiane Capital. These privileged partners shared their experiences and their expectation from ECOMORE project with researcher of Institut Pasteur du Laos, IRD (Research Institute for Development-France) and CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research-France). Representatives of AFD (French Agency of Development) funding the ECOMORE project, French Embassy and WHO could observe and participate in this very interactive meeting.
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