VN031: National consultant to provide support to the Disease Control and Health Emergency Program of the WHO Country Office in Viet Nam in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Background:
The world is dealing with an unprecedented threat from the COVID-19 pandemic caused by the SARS- CoV-2 virus. As of end of August 2020, COVID-19 cases have been reported in 215 countries, territories and areas around the globe; infected more than 25 million people and claimed more than 800,000 lives. Viet Nam has started experiencing a resurgence of cases reported from community since 25 July, after 99 days without local transmission and its successful control of the outbreak’s first wave. To date, 1049 confirmed cases of COVID-19 have reported in country including 35 deaths. Meanwhile, imported cases continue to be reported among the repatriated citizens and international technical experts who are, by the Government’s policy, required to undergo a 14-day quarantine after their arrival in country.
Viet Nam is currently categorized in Stage 2 (i.e. with localized community transmission) in the Western Pacific Region’s transmission category. While the Government is trying its best to control the situation; the risk of the country moving to a wider community transmission remains possible given that many countries in the region and around the world continue to face increasing number of cases and deaths reported daily, and as the country is in a new normal context with public health measures being lifted.
WHO Viet Nam has been working closely with the Ministry of Health (MOH) from the beginning of this pandemic in early January 2020. Our support is provided across technical areas, from prevention, detection to response as required in the International Health Regulation, IHR(2005) and as guided by APSED III. Among these areas, surveillance and response have been a key component to support situation analysis, risk assessment and to inform national response to the evolving COVID-19 outbreak situation. Meanwhile Viet Nam is constantly facing threats from various communicable diseases with outbreak potential such as dengue, diphtheria and including other public health emergencies.
As COVID-19 pandemic is likely to take its course in the next year or two, additional support in the area of surveillance, risk assessment and response is deemed necessary for the upcoming six months, at least, to facilitate effective implementation of the required activities. Therefore, WHO is seeking support from a national short-terms consultant (STC) for this post.
Key activities include:
- To support the WHO Epidemiologist in day-to-day work related to surveillance, risk assessment (RA), field epidemiology training program (FETP) and response activities.
- To provide technical assistance to HE team in supporting the MOH counterparts, led by the General Department of Preventive Medicine (GDPM), to further strengthen multi-source surveillance for COVID-19 and other communicable diseases of national importance to inform public health decision-making.
- To assist GDPM and Regional Pasteur/ Hygiene and Epidemiology Institutes (RIs) in conducting regular risk assessment for COVID-19 and other public health events to inform public health response when required.
- To support further strengthening Viet Nam FETP including advocating for program direction, management and renovation of short-course and intermediate course curriculums.
- To participate in response to disease outbreaks and/or public health emergencies when required by the Government.
- To support counterparts to implement COVID-19 and other communicable disease related activities under the MOH-WHO cooperative workplan.
To support these key activities of the DC-HE team, the consultant will be working closely with GDPM, RIs and other partners, and under the direct supervision of the WHO Epidemiologist and with the overall guidance from the DC-HE Team Coordinator.
Planned timelines:
Start date: 28 Sep 2020
End date: 14 Mar 2021
Attachment:
Details call for expression of interest [1]
Address for Applications:
Administrative Officer
World Health Organization
UN Building, 304 Kim Ma Street, Hanoi, Viet Nam
Or by email at: [email protected] [2]
Application deadline: 22 September 2020