AFENET Features

Tuesday 13 December 2011 was a landmark day for field epidemiology and public health training in Africa, as nine ministers of health signed a communiqué to strengthen their national public health workforce. The Ministers of Health and/or representatives from Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Ghana, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zimbabwe signed the communiqué, now called the Dar es Salaam Agenda for Action On Public Health Systems Strengthening For African Nations Through Field Epidemiology And Laboratory Training Programs (FELTPs), after extensive and collective deliberations which commenced on Monday 12 December 2011 at the Ministerial Roundtable Forum.

Throughout its five year existence, both local and international media have supported AFENET’s interventions by creating public awareness about epidemics and other public health issues. It was only fitting for AFENET to kick off its 5th Anniversary celebration with a Media Breakfast.

One of the steadily increasing threats to efficient public health services delivery in Africa is the inadequacy of laboratory equipment for timely disease detection. Moreover, laboratory initiatives to support disease prevention and treatment are critical for any successful national response and public health system development. It is upon this alarming state of affairs in Africa that AFENET, through its laboratory initiative- AFENET-L, has continued to provide countries in its Network with laboratory kits to strengthen disease surveillance and outbreak response.

In its short five-year existence, AFENET has already accomplished a significant amount. To date, about 600 professionals have graduated from the Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Programs (FELTPs) in the Network, thousands of lives have been saved through strategic interventions, and there have been more timely responses to numerous outbreaks of deadly diseases such as Ebola.