FETP-Intermediate graduates its second cohort of trainees – 6 April 2023 at Source of the Nile Hotel, Jinja

Since May 2022, the second cohort of FETP-Intermediate has been undertaking modular training interspersed with on job field projects that helped them concretize what they learned in class.

The Sudan Ebola Virus outbreak that took the country by surprise in September 2022 was a major disruption to the training schedule but also provided great opportunity for a number of the trainees to get a real feel of some concepts they had learned during the first two workshops of the training. A number of them participated in alert management, case investigation, contact tracing, laboratory coordination and overall response coordination.

Evidenced by their remarks and presentations at the graduation event, the trainees have made improvement in their data analysis and presentation skills, gained competences in outbreak investigations and response and leadership among other things.

Fifteen individuals from Soroti, Mbale and Masaka Regional Referral Hospitals, Regional Emergency Operation Centers and Ministry of Health headquarters successfully completed the training. They were awarded certificates at an event attended by the Director of the National Public Health Emergency Operation Centre, Dr. Issa Makumbi and the CDC FETP Resident Advisor, Dr. Julie Harris. The guest speakers called on the graduates to be change agents at their duty stations and to mentor other colleagues as a means to enhance public health emergency detection and containment at source.

We hope that the team can reflect what they have learned through their work and improve the nation’s public health response. The team of 15 puts the number of FETP-Intermediate graduates at 32 since its roll out in 2021.