Preparation Plan For Field Trip To Hanoi, Vietnam For Rabies Outbreak

Identify the key objectives (not more than four) of your field trip to Hanoi, Vietnam. What do you and your team want to achieve through this visit? Please explain why you think that those are suitable and achievable objectives for your team?

Consider the size and composition of the team. Who will be included and why? Your objectives should guide your team formation. Please be clear and detail about the skill sets of the team members. Please note that you don’t need to identify real people.

Describe all the activities/preparations that are needed to be made before you and your team leave Australia. Also, you would need to detail what needs to be done in terms of ensuring access to the field sites, when you are in Hanoi, Vietnam. These are all about in preparation of your (your team's) visit to the Hanoi, Vietnam and accessing the field sites there.

Please plan the trip, consider you are the leader of the mission, outline necessary steps you need to be aware of, and prepare yourself and the team members for the visit to Hanoi, Vietnam. Please keep the objectives of your field visit in mind to prepare yourselves accordingly.

Following issues should be addressed in the preparation plan.

• Characteristics of field site
• Collaborating institution
• Formalities & Logistics
• Safety and security
• Health fitness and stress
• Implementation plan
• Family & responsibilities

Please ensure that your responses address the context, settings and adversities into account. Please note that we are not interested in what one generally does before going abroad for field work. We are interested to know about your preparation for going to Hanoi, Vietnam in early August 2017 for the ongoing rabies outbreak there. Therefore, your responses will need to be context and settings specific.

Population: Vietnam is a beautiful country, filled with cultural history and heritage. Hanoi is the second largest city in Vietnam and is boosted with the ever growing population. However, the estimated population is difficult to determine in a conclusively manner. The average estimated population is 7.68 million people and the population density of the city is 1,979 people every square kilometre (World Population Review, 2018). This high population rate is equipped with high rate of domestic animals and this is the main reason behind the high rabies infection among the Hanoi population residing in Vietnam. According to Lee et al., (2018) rabies has been one of the notable diseases for more than 40 years in Vietnam. During the last five years, an average of 350,000 people has been bitten by rabies infected dogs causing 80 reported casualties per year. So in order to protect my team member from any impending threats to rabies, I will propose for rabies vaccination of all the members of the team before our visit to Vietnam. The proposal will be made to the funding authority, School of Medicine at Griffith University.

Climate: Hanoi has typical climate of North Viet Nam with tropical monsoon filled with hot summer, heavy rainfall and cold winter. Ha Noi receives relatively high humidity and rainfall. The month of May to September remains hot and rainy and dry winter lasts from November to March. April and October is the transition seasons which constitutes autumn and spring (Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, 2018). Since our team is visiting during August, we are expected to encounter humid summer along with winter. Thus the main precautions that must be taken in order to avoid climatic calamites include use of cotton garments in order to beat humidity and use of umbrellas in order fight against (Appendix A: clothing details). We will also try to avoid outdoor based community health programs in order to avoid unwanted disturbances from heavy rainfall.

Local living condition: According to the reports published by the World Health Organisation (2011), Vietnam still face several challenges with water and sanitation issues along with lack of proper awareness in the hygiene related behaviours. So in order to cope up with the scarcity of water, our team will ensure zero water wastage long with the promotion of the basic hygiene needs among the local population.

The funding agency is School of Medicine at Griffith University. However, it is unlikely that the head of the other organisations that we are planning to collaborate will be available for meetings during a massive outbreak. We will select another representative from the same organisation as our point of contact. This person will be elected directly via contacting the organisation through email. I will use my Griffith email account for any kind of official communications (Appendix B: email details).  The main target organisation during our visit in Vietnam will be National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology Vietnam (NIHEV). According to Viet Nam News (2018), NIHEV is working in close association with the Vietnam government in order to ensure proper supply of vaccines in the rural areas of Vietnam.  Another target organisation will be Asvelis Veterinary Hospital in Ha Noi.

Preparations Before Departure

Formalities that should be done while visiting to Vietnam include

(i) Obtaining research Visa from the Vietnam government via stating the actual purpose of visit.

(ii) Obtaining permission from the Vietnam government to work in Hanoi towards the prevention and eradication of rabies.

There non spot flights from Vietnam to Hanoi one from Sydney and another one from Melbourne. Griffith university is located in Queensland and thus take connecting flight from Queensland to Sydney or Melbourne and then directly to Hanoi.  We book our lodging centre within the vicinity of National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology Hanoi such that it will be easier for us to contact and communicate with the personnel from NIHEV and execute our tasks. We will mainly take local bus or other local transportation facilities in order to reach that rural population in Vietnams. Taking public transport will further help to reduce the overall expenditure of the tour.

In order to ensure proper safety and security all the team members will be vaccinated with rabies vaccines in order to reduce the chances of rabies infection. Though Hanoi has medical facilities and pharmacy shops but we will carry our own first aid box in order to deal in emergency situations during odd hours. In case of extreme emergency we will seek doctors advice.

According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2013), it is not recommended that person’s suffering from any health issues like hypertension or diabetes or communicable disease to attend any kind of health-campaign field trips. Before initiation of the journey, a detailed health check-up will be done for each of the team members from any public funded hospital in Australia. The team will carry the health fitness certificates with them in order t avoid any complications during immigration.

Common First Aid Requirement

(Source: Workplace Health and Safety Queensland, 2014)

In order to reduce the stress the team will undertake sort week-end visits to some to the notable places in Hanoi however; such short trips will be self-financed. These short trips during the weekends will help to reduce the stress level and at the same time will help team to know more about Vietnamese culture.

Table: Places to visit in Hanoi Vietnam

(Source: Hanoi, 2018)

Proper implementation of plan will be done under proper funding that will be obtained from Griffith University. Flight tickets will be booked via university travel agents and accommodation will be booked via the team leader (myself) via credit card that has been issued by the university. Flight tickets will be booked only after visa confirmation.

Since the entire team will be away for a month family responsibilities will be compromised. From my part, I will ensure to clear my financial payments and bills through online transactions or request my other family members to do it on my behalf. I have also issued internal credit card from my bank in order to avoid complications during emergencies.

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2013). CDC health information for international travel 2014: The yellow book. Oxford University Press.

Fitzpatrick, M. C., Hampson, K., Cleaveland, S., Mzimbiri, I., Lankester, F., Lembo, T., ... & Galvani, A. P. (2014). Cost-effectiveness of canine vaccination to prevent human rabies in rural Tanzania. Annals of internal medicine, 160(2), 91-100. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0003447

Hanoi. (2018). Best Things to Do in Hanoi. Access date: 2nd August 2018. Retrieved from: https://www.vietnam-guide.com/hanoi/top10/top10-hanoi-attractions.htm

Jibat, T., Hogeveen, H., & Mourits, M. C. (2015). Review on dog rabies vaccination coverage in Africa: A question of dog accessibility or cost recovery?. PLoS neglected tropical diseases, 9(2), e0003447. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0003447

Lee, H. S., Thiem, V. D., Anh, D. D., Duong, T. N., Lee, M., Grace, D., & Nguyen-Viet, H. (2018). Geographical and temporal patterns of rabies post exposure prophylaxis (PEP) incidence in humans in the Mekong River Delta and Southeast Central Coast regions in Vietnam from 2005 to 2015. PloS one, 13(4), e0194943. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0194943

Meslin, F. X., & Briggs, D. J. (2013). Eliminating canine rabies, the principal source of human infection: what will it take?. Antiviral research, 98(2), 291-296. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.antiviral.2013.03.011

Perovi?, S., Radovanovi?, S., Sikimi?, V., & Berber, A. (2016). Optimal research team composition: data envelopment analysis of Fermilab experiments. Scientometrics, 108(1), 83-111. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-016-1947-9

Viet Nam News. (2018). Authorities ensure sufficient supply of rabies vaccines. Access date: 2nd August 2018. Retrieved from:https://vietnamnews.vn/society/health/427562/authorities-ensure-sufficient-supply-of-rabies-vaccines.html#agVms58uI3ErcaPu.97 

Vietnam National Administration of Tourism (2018). Ha Noi Climate. Access date: 2nd August 2018. Retrieved from:  https://www.vietnamtourism.com/en/index.php/about/items/2531

Workplace Health and Safety Queensland. (2014). First aid in the workplace Code of practice 2014. Access date: 2nd August 2018. Retrieved from: https://www.worksafe.qld.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/58162/First-aid-in-the-workplace-COP-2014.pdf 

World Health Organisation. (2018). Rabies. Access date: 1^st August. Retrieved from: https://www.who.int/ith/vaccines/rabies/en/

World Health Organization. (2011). Vietnam Water And Sanitation Sector Assessment Report. Access date: 2nd August 2018. Retrieved from: https://www.wpro.who.int/vietnam/topics/water_sanitation/watsan_sector_report_vietnam_2011.pdf

World Population Review. (2018) Hanoi Population 2018. Access date: 2nd August 2018. Retrieved from: https://worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities/hanoi-population/