Islamabad: First ever course of Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Programme (FELTP) “Frontline” in Pakistan was held on Wednesday at Armed Forces Post Graduate Medical Institute (AFPGMI), Rawalpindi.
The course was mainly focused on detecting and responding to diseases and events of public health importance of national and international concern. It was jointly organised by the ArmyMedical Corps (AMC), Ministry of National Health Services Regulation and Coordination, FELTP and NIH.
FELTP Frontline Training (FELTP-Frontline) is a 3-month in-service programme and its target audience is public health workers on the front lines of surveillance data collection, monitoring, analysis and response.
The training is designed for public health workers, from all levels, actively involved with surveillance work, who, either do not have the time to participate in the two-year programme or do not have the capacity to conduct surveillance related duties.
Participants learn and practice the fundamental skills used in frontline surveillance, including use of case definitions, disease detection and reporting, summarising of data using simple tables and graphs, case investigation, outbreak investigation and response, surveillance monitoring and evaluation, data analysis and interpretation for decision-making.
The 35 participants who successfully complete the programme were also awarded with certificates on course completion.
Speaking on the occasion, Ministry of National Health Services Regulation and Coordination’s (NHSRC) Director General Dr Assad Hafeez appraised the importance of this event in the light of recent effort for the implementation of IHR 2005 and Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA).
Commandant AFPGMI Maj General Ammar Raza called it a major step toward strengthening disease surveillance capacity in armed forces. Brig NailaAzam, an adviser in community medicine, called it a pioneering work for Army Medical Corps, as well as for Pakistan.
FELTP Resident adviser Dr Rana Jawad Asghar thanked the NHSRC and armed forces’ collaboration to strengthen the health sector, and to improve the quality of health intelligence comprehensively.
He informed that today disease surveillance is collected and treated as health intelligence. We could only win war against bacteria and viruses, only if we deploy our best people on health intelligence gathering.
Spearheading this course embodies the unwavering commitment of the ministry, the FELTP, theNIH and the AMC towards the cause of health development in Pakistan. To have substantial and sustainable impact, it is crucial that such programmes must be held on regular basis as to build a sufficient reserve of skilled manpower for timely detection and response to the communicable disease outbreaks. Similarly, such courses have been planned for capacity building of provincial health departments.
