The Ministry of Health, Wellness and Nutrition recently held a Disease Surveillance Training for Vaccine Preventable Diseases as part of its observance of Vaccination Week of the Americas 2026. The training, conducted at the Ministry of Infrastructure conference room, brought together healthcare workers from across the ministry to strengthen the country's disease detection capabilities.

The session focused on syndromic surveillance, a system that identifies and monitors patient symptoms which will help to ensure early detection of potential public health threats. The training also highlighted significant advances in how surveillance data is collected, analyzed, and shared, with reports being accessible not only to healthcare workers but also to the public.

During her remarks the Medical Surveillance Officer in the Ministry of Health, Wellness and Nutrition Dr. Dana DaCosta Gomez presented the main objectives of the Disease Surveillance training. “So the objectives of this training are to strengthen the capacity of healthcare workers to accurately recognize and categorize symptoms into standard syndromes for early detection of communicable diseases. So we will see how the syndromes attach to different diseases also to improve the timely and accurate reporting through the HMIS we will go into that as well and reinforce the link between surveillance and the EPI program ensuring continued protection against all vaccine preventable diseases. So as frontline healthcare workers you are the first line of contact with the public of course and you provide us with the information that we need. So the information you provide is not just data it is the foundation upon which public health decisions are made.”

PAHO Country Programme Specialist to Saint Lucia, Fiona Anthony, highlighted the importance of continued collaboration in strengthening the nation’s preparedness against vaccine preventable diseases. “PAHO will continue supporting the country and the Ministry of Health with surveillance, rapid outbreak response, communication, and community engagement to counter misinformation, capacity building of our health care providers, and equitable vaccine access through its revolving fund. The surveillance training is being held in both the north and the south of the island this week, demonstrates the ministry's strong support for strengthening surveillance capacity. Enhancing the skills and readiness of health care teams will support the effective detection reporting a response to vaccine preventable diseases, including influenza and COVID-19.”