First Coordinated Emergency Supplies Procurement for Infectious Disease Control (IPC) in the Noto Peninsula Earthquake: Identifying Stakeholders and Pathways in Supply Chains During Initial Disaster Response

Introduction: During initial emergency response for the Noto Peninsula Earthquake occurred on 1 January, 2024, liaison officers from Division of Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) were deployed to support to Disaster Infection Control Team (DICT) and faced various barriers to implementing pre coordinated national strategy of supply chains, which has not well described pull-type emergency supplies procurement for Infectious Disease Control (IPC), resulted in organizing new supply chains. Methods: A descriptive study was conducted based on the reports about IPC supplies procurement between 5 January 2024, when the first MHLW liaison officer from the division was deployed, and 9 January 2024, listing stakeholders including ordering parties, suppliers, carriers, relevant ministries, storage locations/staging posts, and final destinations. Furthermore, the Delphi method with a two-round questionnaire to stakeholders is planned towards identifying the challenges for the pre-coordinated national strategy of supply chains. Results: By the ninth day of the disaster, ten routes for procuring supplies related to IPC had been identified. Of these, five routes were coordinated with the prefectural government. The MHLW’s liaison worked horizontally to connect the various divisions of the prefectural government and urged them to determine who would be in charge, and with the cooperation of MHLW’s other liaisons from other divisions. Then, the pull-type route was established on 6 January, followed by DICT’s logistic system on January 9th. Conclusion: Identifying both public and private health supply chains during initial disaster response had reduced disruption in the affected local government in the early stage of the Noto Peninsula Earthquake. In this study, stakeholders and supply chains were listed, and the barriers as challenges to implementation for the pre-coordinated national strategy of supply chains were described, which would contribute to protecting the health and security of disaster victims in future disasters.