The annual Dengue review meeting in Lao PDR was held in Champasak Province on 10 and 11 December 2018. The event brought together nearly 200 participants from the National Dengue Surveillance Network and various stakeholders involved in dengue control in the country.
Key participants were from the National Centre for Laboratory and Epidemiology (NCLE), Epidemiology Unit of the Department of Health, District Health Office, local Health Authorities, Central and District Hospitals, Health Centers, WHO, Institut Pasteur du Laos (IPL), Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (LOMWRU). Nearly all of the 17 Provinces were represented.
The objective of this workshop was to analyze strengths and weaknesses of the surveillance system by taking into account lessons learnt over the last year and consequently to draw adequate recommendations for the next dengue season.
In this sense, comprehensive technical presentations were given by representatives of key institutions driving the surveillance network, including IP Laos, to summarize dengue status and dynamic in 2018.
The participants split in Working Groups reviewed and debated on patient clinical management, data collection and reporting and improvement of laboratory surveillance.
This event showed that IP Laos is a recognized leader by promoting a standardization of dengue diagnosis algorithms, of interpretation of lab testing and dengue cases classification.
The strategy is now to reinforce dengue diagnosis at the provincial level, based on use of NS1 antigen detection in blood or in urine allowing to confirm dengue from the first days of fever; in the framework of ECOMORE project, IPL could validate diagnostic accuracy of NS1 ELISA rapid test after evaluation of specificity, positive predictive values (PPVs), and negative predictive values (NPVs) after comparison with RT-PCR.
This event showed visibly the support of ECOMORE project in the general improvement of dengue surveillance and anticipation.
ECOMORE project provides evidence based results through development of dynamic mapping of dengue cases and genetic study of circulating viruses allowing to better understand the trends of the disease and so to develop a global surveillance approach offering innovative perspective to control dengue in Lao PDR.
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