Preparing for the Infectious Disease Crisis ―Great efforts of Indonesian Ministry of Health for Strengthening Infectious Disease Surveillance System

10 participants from the Indonesia MOH staff members visited Japan from June 12 to July 1, who are counterparts of "Infectious Disease Early Warning and Response Capacity Strengthening Project", which JICA launched in 2021. Due to the COVID-19, we were forced to change the schedule, but finally able to realize the KCCP in Japan.

With the full cooperation of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID), the participants learned surveillance systems at the national level, and visited Mie, Osaka, and Hiroshima Prefectures to learn actual collaboration systems at local governments, hospitals, public health centers, regional public health institutes, universities, private laboratories, and so on. Also, they learned mass events and responses in the event of a disaster.

Regarding "Surveillance of infectious diseases during disasters, they deepened their understandings in a workshop directed by Professor Kubo in Hiroshima University. In the event of a disaster, it is often assumed that the authorities in the affected area will also be affected and will not be able to perform their functions in normal times, so external support and cooperation are essential. There was a lot of practical learning, such as the fact that the accuracy and efficiency of the surveillance was greatly improved by using a unified standard for surveillance.

Through this KCCP program, the participants not only deepened their knowledge of systems, or technologies, but also gained many insights from their experiences and actual responses during the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, the importance of collaboration　 among various related organizations involved in infectious diseases beyond clinical medicine and public health, government agencies, schools, and the private sector was conveyed as a strong message, and it resonated strongly with the participants.

The participants returned to Tokyo to review the entire KCCP program at NIID, and immediately engage in heated discussions on specific action plans. After returning to Indonesia, we look forward to the progress of the action plans and activity reports from the participants.