The TEPHINET Secretariat held the TEPHINET Global Scientific Conference from October 28 to November 1, 2019, in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. Despite being based in Atlanta, this was the first time the Global TEPHINET conference was held in this city. This was an exciting conference as many got to travel to Atlanta which is also home to TE- PHINET’s parent organization, The Task Force for Global Health, as well as the primary funder, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The TEPHINET Global conference is held every two years with the aim of creating opportunities for members and partners of the field epidemiology training programs as well as other public health experts to convene and share knowledge and experiences related to public health. This year, the theme for the conference was “The Global FETP Enterprise: Applied Epidemiology in the 21st Century” picked from an Enterprise launched on the opening ceremony of the conference. It is aimed at creating a strategic leadership group involving the leaders, funders, implementing partners, government agencies, workforce competency targets, standards, agreements, and technologies that are the back-bone for FETPS.
A total of 213 abstracts were accepted for oral and poster presentations under eleven thematic areas. The PHFP had 2 oral and one poster presentations under animal health theme and another poster under the Public Health Surveillance theme. A PHFP graduate, Lydia Nakiire (currently at the Infectious Diseases Institute, Uganda) was also invited as a panelist in one of the plenary sessions. She made a presentation on “Emergency Response initiatives to Address Natural disasters and cross border connectivity, Uganda” where she highlighted how Uganda has applied the International Health Regulations and the Global Health Security Agenda to ensure activities at the DRC-Uganda border continue without any interruptions. The conference was graced by over 500 participants from 82 countries around the world.
Apart from the presentations, the conference arranged for pre-conference Interactive Learning Sessions aimed at equip- ping learners with the skills in outbreak detection, response, and re- porting as well as creating opportunities for learner engagement with the current material, key note speeches, a photo gallery, TEPHINET’s traditional International Night cultural celebration, and an evening dinner for FETP alumni.