Stories from the field: Aaron (Solomon Islands)

Solomon Islands has so far remained free of COVID-19 community transmission for the duration of the pandemic. Solomon Islands has implemented strong quarantine measures to keep the country safe, and now – as the world begins to open up again – are working hard to achieve high vaccination coverage across the islands in order to best protect its people.

Aaron Kusilifu is a fellow in the first cohort of the Solomon Islands Field Epidemiology Training Program (Sols FETP). Aaron – like his Sols FETP colleagues, and FETP colleagues around the world – has been working hard on his FETP field project (about influenza-like-illness surveillance), whilst simultaneously supporting national COVID-19 preparedness through supporting vaccination rollout.

Mr Aaron Kusilifu, Sols FETP Cohort 1 fellow

Aaron, as the Provincial Surveillance Focal Point, is supporting the rollout from the Malaita Province Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) based in Kilu’ufi Hospital, Auki. The vaccine rollout commenced in August in Malaita’s Central and North regions (target population 38,556 and 22,417, respectively) before continuing activities in the South and Eastern regions (target population 15,243 and 11,657, respectively) throughout September.

Aaron works with the EOC team to collate daily vaccination numbers from vaccination teams across the regions, and to produce weekly coverage reports that are sent to the Ministry of Health and Medical Services at the National level. Applying the skills he has learned in Sols FETP, Aaron is pleased to be able to use Microsoft Excel to create linelists to manage the Provincial vaccination rollout data, and to calculate and display coverage data that is used by the Provincial and National levels for monitoring and decision-making.

Aaron and his Sols FETP colleagues will be returning at the end of this month to present the results of their projects at the final workshop of this inaugural cohort.

You can find out more about Sols FETP here.

Sols FETP Cohort 1, Workshop 2, fellows and faculty, 27 August 2021. Standing row: Mr Aaron Kusilifu (fellow); Mr Ambrose Gali (faculty); Mr Robert Kasia (fellow); Mr Troy Panda (fellow); Ms Barbara Leinga (fellow); Ms Rachel Wale (fellow); Mr Harries Haza (fellow). Seated row: Mr Dudley Pitisopa (fellow); Mrs Cynthia Joshua (faculty); Ms Henao Boara (fellow); Mrs Lorraine Satorara (faculty).