Project News

The Fourth Joint Coordinating Committee (JCC) meeting was held at the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) Board Room on Monday, 8th June, 2015.

The aim of this meeting was to share the progress of each activity since the last Project Steering Committee (PSC) meeting on 11th February, 2015, to discuss current issue and challenges, and to talk about future plans. Professor Mpoke (KEMRI's Director) was the chairman of the meeting. Fourteen participants attended, including Mr. Tambara (Senior Representative from of JICA Kenya Office), Ms. Yoshida and Mr. Kinyangi from JICA Kenya Office (Health Sector), and Professor Ichinose (Chief Representative of NUITM-KEMRI Project at Nagasaki University) as an observer.

After Minutes of the Third PSC meeting were reviewed at the beginning of the meeting, project managers of Outputs 1 to 3 presented its progress in the activities according to the Plan of Operation (PO).

For Output 1, the activities on development of rapid diagnostic test kit has been carried out. Successful development of anti-Rift Valley fever virus IgM detection kit was reported. Further evaluation steps (Sensitivity, Specificity, Valid period) of the kit will be undertaken.

For Output 2, the activities of two KEMRI Reference laboratories in Nairobi and Alupe were reported such as publication of two scientific papers and JICA's and the SATREPS project's supports of P3 laboratory in KEMRI for Ebola as well as other hemorrhagic fevers (yellow fever and Rift Valley fever) preparedness.

For Output 3, the activities includes the establishment of an early vigilance model using mobile phone SMS (short message service) based disease outbreak alert system model known as mSOS. The pilot implementation phase of the mSOS was completed, and the mSOS Stakeholders' Meeting was held on Friday, 5th June, 2015. At the JCC meeting, it was reported that the stakeholders agreed on the nationwide scale-up of mSOS. The Ministry of Health will formulate the plans and ask partners for technical and financial support to scale-up mSOS. It was confirmed that the Project would support activities for scaling-up by holding a series of training and workshop sessions.

At the end of the JCC meeting, the closing remarks were provided by Professor Morita (Chief Advisor), Mr. Tambara (Senior Representative from JICA Kenya Office), and Professor Ichinose (Chief Representative of NUITM-KEMRI Project at Nagasaki University). It has been agreed to continue to promote the activities towards the achievement of the project goal.

The Fourth PSC will be held January 2016.