WAHO, AFENET and The Gambian Ministry of Health are Strengthening Field Epidemiology Capacities in The Gambia
The Gambian Field Epidemiology Training Program (GamFETP)-Frontline Cohort 8 training started on 11 February 2020 at the National Nutritional Agency (NaNA) Hall in Banjul, The Gambia.
The training is a 12-weeks training funded by the West African Health African Organization (WAHO) and implemented by the African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET) in collaboration with Ministry of Health (MOH) of The Gambia.
The training was declared open by the WAHO Liaison Officer in The Gambia in the person of Mr. Karamba Keita. In attendance also were the Coordinator of the Epidemiology and Disease Control Unit of the Gambian MOH, Mr Sana Sambou, and the Resident Advisor, GamFETP and Field Coordinator, Liberia FETP, Dr Peter Adewuyi,
The cohort of eight (8) trainees are drawn from all the seven (7) health regions of The Gambia and consists of public health officers and port health officers who are necessary for detection, reporting and responding to the priority diseases and in particular the current Covid-19. The training is made up of three (3) workshops and two (2) field works. The first workshop which will run for five (5) days, will expose the trainees to the epidemiology of coronavirus, public health surveillance cycle and develop the skills of the surveillance officers in summarizing and displaying data, contact tracing, case investigation and basic Microsoft Excel training.
After the workshop, the trainees will be supervised and mentored by dedicated mentors who are graduates of FETP-Frontline and FETP-Advanced in country, ensuring that what was taught in class is practicalized at the workplaces of each trainee.
At the end of the 12 weeks training, 32 surveillance officers would have submitted 256 weekly surveillance reports, conducted 32 data quality audits, 32 problem analysis, various number of case and outbreak investigations. Furthermore, they would have delivered 64 scientific presentations of their fieldwork.