Updates from the West African FELTP

The West -Africa FELTP is conducting its third short course on outbreak investigation. The course begun on 16 March 2009 and will end on 25 March 2009. The focus of this course is principles and practices of outbreak investigation using Meningitis, Cholera, Viral Hemorrhagic Fevers, Avian Influanzae case studies. There are a total of 20 participants from the following countries: Burkina Faso (8), Mali (4), Niger (4) and Togo (4). A third of the participants are veterinarians while the rest will include medical officers, microbiologists, pharmacists, and epidemiologists. The course facilitators are from all participating countries and comprise experts from universities, research centers, ministries of health and WHO. The course was launched by Professor Kader Konde -the Director of the WHO Multi-Disease Surveillance Centre, Professor Harouna Ouedraogo - the Deputy Dean of the School of Medicine and Pharmacy, University of Ouagadougou, and Dr Danladi Nassoury - Director Division of Epidemiology (Ministry of Health, Togo).

The second scientific conference for the West African FELTP will be held on March 25-26, 2009 and the 20 participants from the second short course will present their results for field projects done in surveillance and disease control.

A side meeting will be organized for all national focal points (the chief surveillance officers in all four countries) for the West African program during which they will be updated on their roles and responsibilities for the upcoming master program.

Updates from Uganda FETP

The Uganda AIZIP team held a half day meeting on 18 March 2009. The AIZIP team is a multidisciplinary consisting of epidemiologists (medical and veterinary), physician, biostatistician, anthropologist, ecologist, entomologist, wild life veterinarian, zoologist and microbiologist. The meeting was convened by Dr Sheba Gitta – Uganda NFP, with the aim of finalizing the plague outbreak investigation report and identifying feasible interventions that can be implemented in the affected districts to control future plague outbreaks. David Mukanga and Dr. Monica Musenero from the Secretariat also attended the meeting, with the latter leading the discussions on potential interventions.

Updates from Nigerian FELTP

The inaugural supervisors’ meeting was held on the 11th February 2009, to provide an update on Nigeria-FELTP. The objective of this meeting was to deliberate on field supervision of residents, identify suitable projects for residents and chart way forward for N-FELTP field supervision. Since field supervision is an integral and critical aspect of the training program, the monthly meeting ensures that residents are adequately supported in the various activities that they undertake. The participants were drawn from the various placement sites of all the residents. Also present were university lecturers from University of Ibadan and Ahmadu Bello University, representatives of CDC Nigeria and Atlanta as well as the Resident Advisor and officials of the Federal Ministry of Health.

Updates from South Africa FELTP

The South African FELTP (SAFELTP) held its 1st scientific conference last week. The theme of conference was: Providing Evidence for Public Health Transformation. The purpose of the meeting was to showcase the achievements of the SAFELTP, provide an opportunity for the residents to network and learn, as well as avail a forum for the broader community that is involved in supporting and enabling the SAFELTP to interact with each other.

The meeting was attended by the SAFELTP staff and residents, advisors, collaborators, field supervisors, Advisory Committee members, local institutions, universities, national, provincial, district and local Departments of Health, FELTPs in the neighbouring countries and donor agencies

Updates from the secretariat

Trainees and graduates of field-based training programs in applied epidemiology and public health practice are invited to submit abstracts (in English only) on investigations or projects undertaken during training and completed within the past 2 years. Abstracts should describe outbreak investigations, implementation and evaluation of public health programs or surveillance activities, or other areas in applied epidemiology or public health practice. Abstracts and presentations should emphasize how the results of the investigation or an analysis were used to direct public health actions and also describe or estimate the public health impact. For more information about the 5th TEPHINET & 3rd AFENET Regional Scientific Conference visit www.tephinet-afenet-conference.net

A group of students from the North West Chicago University visited AFENET last week on Wednesday 18th March,2009. The aim of the visit was to familiarize staff at the secretariat about an infant HIV testing kit that was developed by their university, and to explore areas of possible collaboration.

Dr. Pascale Krumm from CDC Atlanta was at the AFENET Secretariat from March 10 to March 20 working on communications projects with AFENET. She worked with Anthony Kimuli, IT Officer, and a web contractor to design a new website for AFENET-L (www.afenet-lab.net), a new website for the upcoming TEPHINET AFENET Scientific Conference (www.tephinet-afenet-conference.net), and to redesign the current AFENET website (www.afenet.net). The websites will be completed this week.