CDC graduates 18 ‘disease detectives’

Epidemiologists

By Kemo Cham

[First published on www.politicosl.com] Eighteen Sierra Leoneans have completed an intensive course on disease surveillance as part of the United States government’s support to the country’s preparedness against eminent public heath emergencies.

Training in session

The US Centers for Diseases Control (CDC) and Prevention conducted the training designed to help Sierra Leone detect and prevent a recurrence of the 2014 outbreak of the Ebola epidemic, the US embassy said Monday. It said the training was part of the US government’s assistance in building Sierra Leone’s capacity to prevent the next Ebola outbreak.

The trainees, who were drawn from the public health department of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, were provided the necessary skills to collect, analyze, and interpret data to make decisions that can save lives. 

The three-month program specifically focused on improving disease surveillance, epidemiology, outbreak response, and communication skills among public health workers.

The training was conducted under the Field Epidemiology Training Program Frontline (FETP) of the CDC, which forms the cornerstone of the joint US-Sierra Leone efforts to build a disease surveillance capacity for the West African country, the US embassy statement said.

The severity of the 2014 Ebola outbreak was blamed on the fact that there was very little knowledge locally in handling epidemics. This translated into the loss of many lives before the international community intervened.

With this capacity, Sierra Leone would be better able to prevent future cases of deadly diseases like Ebola from becoming large, and lethal epidemics, the statement said.

FETP is a global program designed to train field epidemiologists or ‘disease detectives’ to make informed decision on the basis of scientific approaches. It was designed to help build a trained public health workforce at the national and community levels.

As part of the package for Sierra Leone, such a training is conducted every three months, with the next training scheduled to commence September 25.

There are plans to expand the program to nine months in 2017.