Lina Chaito is an epidemiologist working in the surveillance of communicable diseases at Lebanon’s Ministry of Public Health. With more than a decade of experience, she focuses on the surveillance of vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles and mumps and has been actively involved in the COVID-19 response in her country.
In 2024, she joined the GOARN Berlin Fellowship Programme, a joint initiative of the WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence (WHO Hub), the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), and WHO’s Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN). The programme supports the next generation of public health experts by providing mentorship and opportunities to collaborate with leading global health experts.
As part of the fellowship, each participant spends six months in Berlin working on a project related to their area of expertise, benefiting from the guidance and support of the organizing partners. By bringing these insights back to their home institutions, the programme helps to strengthen public health intelligence and improve global preparedness for future pandemics and epidemics.
We asked Lina Chaito to tell us more about her time as a GOARN fellow.
Which project did you work on during your fellowship?
Rabies has become a growing public health concern in Lebanon and we have seen an increase in human rabies cases since 2023. The country’s rabies control programme faces several challenges, including resource constraints at the Ministry of Public Health and the Ministry of Agriculture and delays in reporting human rabies cases. Too often, by the time a hospital notifies us of a confirmed rabies case, it is already too late, we’ve missed the critical window for post-exposure prophylaxis, which could have saved a life.
That’s why I decided to focus my fellowship project on strengthening epidemic intelligence activities in Lebanon, particularly improving rabies surveillance. My goal was to enable earlier detection of cases while they are still within the community to allow timely intervention. I also wanted to identify areas at high risk of rabies exposure.
Lina Chaito is presenting her project during an Open House at the WHO Hub in Berlin.
Credit: © WHO / Marius Bauer
How did you work towards achieving this?
The first step was to involve partners beyond the health facilities, especially municipalities, but also national and local NGOs.
In Lebanon, municipalities often use social media pages and WhatsApp groups to communicate with their communities. They use these platforms to share announcements about public health threats, local events or emergencies.
For example, if someone is bitten by a stray dog, a municipality might post a warning to alert residents. While these platforms are not exclusively used to communicate about public health, they serve as vital sources of information on unusual events.
By collaborating with municipalities, we can tap into these informal sources of information and integrate them into our daily surveillance activities, making our approach more comprehensive. To achieve this, we are looking at ways to incorporate these sources into the Epidemic Intelligence from Open Sources (EIOS) system that we use for event monitoring.
My project also includes capacity building for colleagues at the Ministry, specifically training them on using social media searches for outbreak detection and monitoring.
GOARN fellows participating in a training in Berlin, October 2023
Credit: Robert Koch Institute
How did the GOARN fellowship help you advance your project?
Becoming a GOARN fellow was a significant milestone in my career as an epidemiologist. The fellowship provided valuable mentorship and connected me with professionals who understood my project and could guide me. I had the incredible opportunity to collaborate with experts at the WHO Hub working on the EIOS inititaive and colleagues from WHO’s Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean (EMRO).
I built multiple connections and received valuable feedback from different experts on improving my project. Beyond the technical aspects, I also gained insight into how the team at the WHO Hub works to enhance rapid public health threat detection. It was really inspiring to see the impact that early detection has on saving lives and containing disease outbreaks. This experience will shape my future career in science and public health.
Opening Ceremony of the second cohort of the GOARN Berlin Fellowship in Berlin, August 2024
Credit: Robert Koch Institute
Did you encounter any challenges in implementing your project?
The biggest challenge was the situation in my home country during my fellowship. Some of my planned activities got delayed when the war started in Lebanon. Being away from my family during such a critical time also made it difficult to stay focused. However, thanks to the incredible support of my colleagues at the WHO Hub, I was able to continue my work.
My colleagues in Lebanon are my heroes. They managed to reach out to municipalities in areas that were not directly affected by the conflict. Through these municipalities, we gathered local sources, which I incorporated into a reporting template. I am now in communication with colleagues from EMRO to explore whether these sources can be integrated into EIOS.
What are the next steps of your project now that you are returning to your home institution?
One of my key goals is to maintain the connections I built at the WHO Hub and the Robert Koch Institute. I now have a network of many experts across different fields, which will strengthen partnerships between my institution and these organizations.
I also want to share my knowledge with my colleagues by organizing training sessions and discussions on public health intelligence. Sharing and applying what I’ve learned during the last 6 months will be crucial in the next phase of my project.
My fellowship project is just the beginning, it’s the foundation for future work. Once the situation has stabilized and communication becomes easier, I plan to expand the project to the provinces that were affected by the conflict.