Integrated Public Health and Academic Collaboration for Infectious Diseases Control (iPHAC-IDC): Implementation of One Health approaches to pandemic preparedness and adolescent HIV prevention

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT Public health threats including emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) have highlighted the need for strengthening surveillance and laboratory systems for faster and smarter outbreak response. The Thai Department of Diseases Control (DDC), the Department of Medical Sciences (DMSc), Ministry of Public Health have collaboratively worked with Chulalongkorn University (CU) and the Thai Red Cross Society (TRC) on HIV research and other emerging endemic infectious disease surveillance, prevention, and control. This proposal will launch the “Integrated Public Health and Academic Collaboration for Infectious Diseases Control (iPHAC- IDC): Implementation of One Health approaches to pandemic preparedness and adolescent HIV prevention”, a collaborative nested network among infectious disease control researchers from DDC, DMSc, CU and TRC, as well as EID experts in the USA and France. The iPHAC-IDC will establish an integrated and sustainable network to prepare for future disease outbreaks in Thailand. We will conduct research to 1) Develop and implement the NextGen Public Health Surveillance Approaches by using the PCR, next-generation sequencing, and multiplex serology assays to identify novel viruses, characterize the genomes of new-rare viral strains of endemic diseases, EIDs, and AMR. These genomic data will be integrated with clinical and epidemiologic data to create a pathogen genomic surveillance platform. In addition, genomic-mathematic models will be developed and embedded in the platform for real-time analysis. One Health surveillance approaches in the environment, including wastewater and air, and SARS-CoV-2 reverse zoonoses in wildlife will be pursued. 2) Develop and implement the GLLP curriculum at the School of Global Health by creating a GLLP curriculum at the Faculty of Medicine, Chulalongkorn University, in two pattern courses; A mandatory course in the One Health Branch of the Medical Sciences program and an elective course for other graduate students and a lifelong learning platform for all participants with an option to keep the credits for further claims after enrollment to CU. 3) Develop a youth-focused HIV prevention service model in the government hospital network by establishing youth-focused clinics that provide comprehensive HIV education and prevention with pre-exposure prophylaxis leveraging social network strategies, and improving gonorrhea antimicrobial genomics resistance surveillance. This research will advance our understanding of the risk of EIDs and endemic diseases and strengthen in- country public health research capacity and promote laboratory workforce development for pandemic preparedness and adolescent HIV prevention.