Day 6

Sharing experiences and decisions

Groups will present their results to the whole School, on Saturday, 22th July. More than one more member of the group can present. Presentations should last 15 minutes at maximum followed by a 10-minute discussion. The target public are your fellow students, which are not familiar with your assignment.

How to send you presentation slides

• The final version of presentation slides should be sent as an attached file in PDF format to spsas2023@gmail.com
• The deadline for sending the final version of this PDF file is Saturday 22 July 08:00 AM.
• We will upload this version on the main computer in the auditorium, and this is the version that you should use use and we will discuss.

Day 5

Summary of context and strategies

The group should prepare a summary of the proposed responses and justify what evidence and factors were taken into account.  This summary should be organized in a 15 minute presentation that will be presented on Saturday, 22th July. We encourage you to be creative, clear, concise, and consider that you are presenting to the entire School. This is an opportunity to have valuable feedback from your colleagues and faculty after an intense 5-days immersion into a situation room.

By the end of the day today you should present a preliminary version of Saturday’s presentation to  the instructors. The instructors will visit the group’s room to give some feedback between 3 PM and 5 PM.

How to send you presentation slides

• The final version of presentation slides should be sent as an attached file in PDF format to spsas2023@gmail.com
• The deadline for sending the final version of this PDF file is Saturday 22 July 08:00 AM.
• We will upload this version on the main computer in the auditorium, and this is the version that you should use use and we will discuss.

Day 4

Deciding paths, making decisions 

Situation: There is a shortage of yellow fever vaccines on the local level, no medicine available. There is vaccination hesitancy.

The local 40-bed general hospital is at full capacity due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Small general hospitals in the region are not equipped for ICU care.

However, the regional hospital, 100 km away, has 200 beds and 20 beds in the ICU, which has attended to patients transported by ambulance.

The surveillance service noticed an increase in the number of other zoonoses cases in the affected area.

The lethality of the disease was higher than expected in the literature.

Also, a big university research group is planning a study on Yellow Fever in the area and has reached out to you.

Questions to consider

• What are the hypotheses and actions to investigate the increased lethality? How to investigate the deaths?
• What would be the strategies to guarantee an effective vaccination, hospital beds and intensive care for patients, and the logistics of all these actions?
• What information could contribute to a better monitoring of the vaccination and future impacts of it? How to deal with vaccine hesitancy?
• Which other prevention measures could be implemented to lower the risk of transmission in the future?
• Which questions would you want to be answered in partnership with the university group?

What is expected of the group on day 4

Propose paths and responses based on a broader and more critical knowledge of the facts that arise during the health crisis.

Day 3

Political and Logistical Challenges 

Six months after the beginning of the epidemic

A large luxury condominium is being built on the outskirts of the city in the vicinity of the forest reserve and the environmental preservation area. The construction project will utilize part of the forest area as an ecological reserve for the leisure of condominium residents. Local authorities refuse to enforce environmental laws that could limit or even avoid the use of the forest reserve by the condominium.

The local radio reported that a group of rural residents are killing wild monkeys based on their belief that this will reduce the risk of transmission. Based on the same belief, the mayor and the population pressure authorities to allow hunting of wild animals in the forested region of the city. A group of councilors from several affected municipalities in the region demand that municipal agencies organize and offer vaccination for wild animals in the region. The city has a small staff able to do environmental patrolling with limited budget, but no technical personnel.

Questions to consider

• How should the team respond to this situation in order to avoid more cases, hospitalizations, and deaths?
• How can the situation room work more effectively with stakeholders and other important actors, in order to reduce  cases, hospitalizations, and deaths?
• Which strategies can enhance community awareness and engagement in the response to the outbreak?
• What could be effective strategies to address logistic challenges ?
• Which communication strategies can be used in this context?

What is expected of the group on day 3

Tackle the political and logistical issues in this health crisis situation. Aim for creativity and flexibility in designing mitigation actions that are politically and logistically feasible.

Day 2

Describing the current situation

The only information available at the time is the dataset that contains data on Yellow Fever human cases in municipalities and neighboring regions.

Vaccination coverage of yellow fever was 40%, distributed mainly among adults. Sporadic deaths of monkeys have been recorded retrospectively in the region and surroundings, in recent weeks but without epidemiological investigation.

Displacement of cases in non-human primates from forests to close to urban areas was notified after the first cases. Until now the area was considered a non-risk area.

Database available

Map file https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qV03WmDbyhExbWs2qZj9taPExlMW9lVj/view?usp=sharing

Disease data https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LykTYqY2703HYFk73b54HBI2zARRSg09/view?usp=sharing

Questions to consider

• Which strategies are priorities?
• What indicators can contribute to monitoring and coping with epidemics and epizootics?
• What are the priority actions and groups most at risk?

What is expected from the group on day 2

Analyze data to identify priorities and support future decision-making

Day 1

(Re) emergence of a disease

The health epidemiological surveillance team received rumors about the deaths of 3 non-human primates at a site next to a peripheral neighborhood in a city of 100,000 inhabitants in southeastern Brazil. The following week, a dead monkey was found on a tourist trail next to a waterfall in the city’s ecological park. The city has an environmental preservation area visited by tourists and local people.

In the following week, the death of a 42-year-old man due to a Yellow Fever Virus (YFV) infection was reported in a regional reference hospital. The microregion was not known as endemic for yellow fever.

Questions to consider

• What are the first steps to investigate the problem?
• How to organize the mitigation of this situation?
• What information is needed to assess the situation?
• Which professionals should be involved in investigating these events?
• What environmental aspects should be considered?

 What is expected of the group on Day 1

Organization of the group to broaden the understanding of the situation and start the discussion about the first steps to guarantee actions with an impact in the future.