By the year 2020 when Cohort 2018 graduated, the Uganda Public Health Fellowship Program (PHFP) had enrolled 66 Fellows in Advanced Field Epidemiology since its inception in 2015; with the highest ever enrollment of 13 in 2020. Over those past 5 years, Fellows have conducted 108 outbreak investigations most of them on high priority diseases of public health importance; thereby contributing to their effective management and control. They had also analyzed public health surveillance data and conducted evaluation of public health surveillance systems with the aim of improving detection of disease epidemic alerts and prompting early response. Within this short span, Fellows implemented a total of 313 projects, which is no mean achievement.
In addition, Fellows have made 237 presentations at national and international conferences, winning six awards including the prestigious CDC Director‟s Award for Excellence in Public Health and Response at the 2017 EIS conference. Fellows have made significant appearances in the local media, contributing feature articles on key topics of public health importance.
The publication of the Uganda National Institute of Public Health Quarterly Epidemiological Bulletins where Fellows have participated very effectively as editors and article contributors is another tremendous achievement. Sixteen volumes had so far been produced since commencement of the program five years ago from 2015 to 2020. In addition, PHFP continued to contribute to production of the Quarterly Malaria Bulletin as well as initiating three completely novel bulletins i.e. Neglected Tropical Diseases Bulletin, National TB and Leprosy Program Bulletin and Non Communicable Diseases Bulletin, where the fellows and other MoH epidemiologists and officers publish valuable public health information for consumption by the public and scientific world. In 2020, the HIV/AIDS Program Bulletin was planned to hit the scientific and program platform waves.
The program had produced a total of eighty manuscripts, submitted to reputable peer-reviewed journals; 35 of which have so far been published and the other remaining 45 have either been accepted or undergoing peer reviews at various levels.
In this report, we present to you the profiles of Cohort 2018 Fellows and their achievements over the two-year period of training in service while placed within priority programs or institutions of the Ministry of Health.