By the year 2022 when Cohort 2020 graduated, The Uganda Public Health Fellowship Program (UPHFP) had enrolled 95 Fellows in Advanced Field Epidemiology since its inception in 2015; with the highest ever enrollment of 15 in 2022. Over the past 7 years, Fellows had conducted over 120 outbreak investigations most of them on high priority diseases of public health importance; thereby contributing to their effective management and control. They 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 that short span, Fellows implemented several projects.
In addition, Fellows made numerous presentations at national and international conferences, winning eight awards including the prestigious CDC Director’s Award for Excellence in Public Health and Response at the 2017 and 2021 EIS conferences. Fellows also made significant appearances in the local media, contributing feature articles on key topics of public health importance.
The publication of the Uganda Public Health Bulletin, where Fellows participated very effectively as editors and article contributors were another tremendous achievement.
Twenty four volumes had been produced since commencement of the program. In addition, PHFP continued to contribute to the production of the Malaria Quarterly 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 the scientific world.
The program has produced over 150 manuscripts, submitted to reputable peer-reviewed journals; 60 of which were by then published and the other remaining ones had either been accepted or were still undergoing peer reviews at various levels.
In this report, we present to you the profiles of Cohort 2020 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.