Updates from Zimbabwe

The Zimbabwe FETP second year trainees presented their field projects at the monthly MPH meeting that was held on Friday last week (26 June 2009) at the Department of Community Medicine. A total of eight presentations were made, including one presentation from the first year trainees which was based on field research that they conducted during the Health Systems Research module.

The first year trainees are in class for their last module before being deployed to the field attachment sites on the 20th of July 2009. A total of twelve trainees will be deployed to different provinces in Zimbabwe.

Two field supervisory visits were conducted last week (22-26 June 2009) by the Field Assistant Coordinators. The visits were for the trainees attached to Harare and Mashonaland Central provinces.

This week Notion Gombe, Assistant Field Coordinator is attending a five day workshop on the revision of IDSR in Kadoma District. The other participants are from the MOH and WHO departments.

Updates from Rwanda

Our main activities for the week are as follows:

Updates from Uganda

The Uganda program is holding a one day retreat today, Friday 3 July 2009 at Hotel Royale in Kampala-Uganda. The purpose of this retreat is to finalise courses that will be offered by the Department of Health Policy Planning and Management under the revised curriculum.

The Uganda Ministry of Health on Thursday, 2 July 2009, confirmed the first case of Influenza A (H1N1) in Uganda. The case is a 40 year old man from London who arrived in Uganda via Entebbe International airport on 26 June 2009 having transited through Nairobi.

Updates from Tanzania

On Tuesday 30 June 2009, two Tanzania Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program (FELTP) residents: Dr. Azma Simba - Applied Epidemiology and Mr. Stanley Lyimo - Laboratory Management, made a presentation to Mr. Jacob Lew - the Deputy Secretary of State in the United States Government. The presentation highlighted the benefits of US government investment in public health to the Tanzania FELTP. This was during Mr. Lew’s visit to the CDC country office.

The Field Coordinators: Dr. Mohamed Ally and Dr. Janneth Mghamba are currently in Italy attending a two weeks short course on Advanced Epidemiology. The course started on 22 June 2009.

Dr. Fausta Mosha- the Laboratory Resident Advisor is currently in Maputo- Mozambique providing support and facilitating a short course on outbreak Detection, Investigation and Response.

Two TFELTP residents together with a team from the Tanzania Ministry of Health are currently investigating an outbreak of chemical poisoning in Mara region, in the Northern part of Tanzania. Several deaths have been reported.

Updates from Secretariat

The first Short Course in Outbreak Detection, Investigation and Response is currently taking place in Maputo-Mozambique. Participants are public health professionals who are responsible for disease surveillance and outbreak response in Mozambique. The 2 weeks course started on 29 June 2009 and ends on 10 July 2009. This course is a product of the collaboration between the Mozambique Ministry of Health, the African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET) and the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The course is being conducted in Portuguese, which is a major milestone to AFENET since all past short courses have been taught in either English or French.

Ms. Lindsey Mwoga, Mr. Kenneth Eyatu and Dr. Namusisi Olivia from AFENET secretariat were in Mozambique from Saturday 27 June 2009 to 1 July 2007, offering logistical and administrative support to ensure smooth running of the course. Dr. Namusisi also participated in teaching. Dr. Monica Musenero (AFENET secretariat) and Mr. Luswa Lukwago (AFENET Fellow –Uganda MOH) are currently part of the course facilitators.

The abstract review process for the Mombasa TEPHINET/AFENET Conference was completed successfully this week. A total of 160 abstracts were reviewed. The Scientific Committee will be communicating the outcomes of the abstract review process on 7 July 2009.

Mr. David Mukanga- AFENET Executive Director, will be out of office during the coming 2 weeks. He will be travelling to Washington-USA, Nigeria and Ethiopia to meet some of AFENET’s partners.