The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) is pushing forward landmark efforts to boost the region’s capacity to detect and respond to vector-borne diseases, rolling out expanded regional surveillance networks and cutting-edge monitoring technologies through a collaborative multi-country workshop held recently in Guyana.
Held from April 27 to 28, 2026 at the Pegasus Hotel Exhibition Centre in Georgetown, the Regional Multisectoral Workshop, officially titled “Advancing Regional Vector-Borne Disease Surveillance through Technology and Harmonisation,” marks the latest milestone in a multi-phase regional public health initiative funded entirely through CARPHA’s Pandemic Fund Project. The convening gathered 28 key stakeholders, including senior epidemiology and vector control officials from 12 CARPHA member states, leadership from the Caribbean Vector-Borne Disease Network Steering Committee, and CARPHA’s in-house technical public health experts.
This Georgetown gathering builds on two prior successful regional workshops held in Barbados (August 2025) and Trinidad and Tobago (December 2025), where participants focused on foundational topics including Integrated Vector Management, insecticide resistance testing, and the application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to Caribbean pandemic preparedness. Unlike earlier sessions that laid operational groundwork, the 2026 workshop centered on streamlining cross-border collaboration: participants worked to standardize regional disease datasets, validate unified early warning indicators, and integrate modern digital tools to enable faster, evidence-based decision-making across three core areas: epidemiological tracking, climate monitoring, and vector population surveillance.
Lisa Indar, a senior CARPHA official, emphasized the ongoing urgency of the effort in her remarks, noting that vector-borne illnesses remain a persistent, major strain on Caribbean health systems and local communities. “As vector-borne diseases continue to pose a significant threat to Caribbean health systems and communities, CARPHA is working with Member States to strengthen the systems needed to detect risks earlier and respond more effectively,” Indar explained. “Through CARPHA’s Pandemic Fund Project, we are advancing integrated early warning systems, building technical capacity, and supporting the use of data and new technologies to guide timely public health action across the Region.”
Horace Cox, CARPHA’s Director of Surveillance, Disease Prevention and Control, echoed this focus, noting that robust, standardized surveillance forms the backbone of any effective public health preparedness framework. “Effective surveillance is at the centre of public health preparedness. By strengthening the way countries collect, analyse, and share vector-borne disease data, we are improving the Caribbean’s ability to detect threats earlier and coordinate timely responses across the region,” Cox said.
Roshan Parasram, another leading public health figure involved in the initiative, highlighted why modern, structured vector control systems are non-negotiable for Caribbean public health safety. “We are here because the Caribbean deserves a public health system that can see threats coming and act before they become crises,” Parasram stated. “We have built our approach on three pillars: Integrated Vector Management, Insecticide Resistance Testing, and Geographic Information Systems. These are not buzzwords. They are the operational backbone of a modern vector control system.”
Brian Armour, who leads work on regional early warning infrastructure for CARPHA, further outlined the value of integrating vector surveillance into broader regional public health systems. “Our Regional Integrated Early Warning and Response System (RIEWSS) is about connecting data, systems, and people so that public health threats can be identified and acted upon more quickly,” Armour explained. “The integration of vector-borne disease surveillance into this broader early warning framework is an important step toward a more coordinated, data-driven approach to pandemic preparedness and response in the Caribbean.”
Over the course of the two-day workshop, participants conducted in-depth reviews of proposed regional early warning indicators and evaluated methodologies to unify data collection and reporting across epidemiology, entomology, climate science, and geographic information systems. Technical breakout sessions explored the practical application of a range of innovative tools, including DHIS2 digital workflows, insecticide resistance analytics platforms, satellite remote sensing technology, artificial intelligence-powered risk mapping, and social listening tools designed to improve situational awareness and cut response times for public health agencies.
Among the tools highlighted, DHIS2 — an open-source digital health information management platform — was singled out as a core enabling technology for the region’s new surveillance framework. The platform is designed to streamline the collection, analysis, and visualisation of public health data, enabling faster detection and response to emerging disease outbreaks.
In addition to digital technology, participants also discussed new vector control innovations, including spatial repellents and emanator products engineered for use in the Caribbean’s densely populated urban centers. The workshop also included working sessions to review plans for formalizing the governance structure of the Caribbean Vector-Borne Disease Network Steering Committee and aligning stakeholders on the body’s upcoming work agenda.
A key outcome of the convening was the opportunity for individual member states to assess which technologies and interventions best fit their unique national epidemiological contexts, while also mapping out the infrastructure, cross-border partnerships, and workforce training required to roll out new systems locally. CARPHA officials noted that the discussions and agreements reached at the workshop are expected to improve the consistency and timeliness of regional disease data reporting, strengthen cross-border coordination, and enable more targeted, effective vector control measures across the entire Caribbean region.