Dr. Gaston Tshapenda Panda has been working as a waterborne diseases Surveillance Specialist with Integral Global since September 2021 and is based in in Goma, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). He is an FELTP fellow from the Yaoundé 1 University in Cameroon in 2012 and also trained in Public Health Emergency Management (PHEM) at CDC Atlanta in 2017. He holds a Master ‘s Degree in Health and Development from the University of Lubumbashi in DRC.
Dr. Gaston’s current portfolio is related to the coordination of integrated surveillance strengthening, immunization campaign implementation, capacity building, prevention and control activities for cholera in eastern DR Congo and providing direct technical support to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) activities in DRC.
Before joining IG, Dr. Gaston served as a WHO international consultant in Sierra Leone in 2021, focusing on the development of the national cholera Preparedness and Response Plan and in surveillance and Laboratory system evaluation. He also worked in Guinea Conakry for Ebola management as a FELTP CDC fellow and WHO consultant in 2015.
Dr. Gaston served as an Incident Manager and Chief of Operations Section in the Incident Management System, during the Ebola outbreaks in 2018, 2019 and 2020 in DRC. He also worked as a team leader of the yellow fever task force in DRC during the Yellow fever outbreak in 2016.
He spent many years at the National level in DRC working in the Diseases Control Directorate, serving as the Malaria Bureau Chief and the Noncommunicable disease surveillance Division Chief. He also worked at the provincial level in DRC as the Disease Control Chief.