"Covid 19 will not be the last pandemic, not the last global health emergency. With political and financial investments now, we can advance health security, prevent and mitigate future pandemics, and protect our future and the future of generations to come."
- Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
WHO Director-General
Field epidemiologists played a critical role in the COVID-19 pandemic. Analyses showed that field epidemiologists engaged in different aspects of the response including (a) coordination, planning, financing & monitoring, (b) surveillance, contact tracing and case investigations, as well as (c) specific technical areas such as points of entry and risk communication.
Having a trained and qualified health workforce provides the foundation for countries' abilities to surge and respond to future events. With over 80 field epidemiology training programmes (FETPs) around the world and 22000 individuals trained in total, the question now is: what skills do field epidemiologists need to be ready for a future pandemic? Different inputs and perspectives are required to address this question, especially (a) FETPs as the programmes that 'supply' the workforce and (b) the pandemic planning initiatives that benefit from and 'demand' a capable workforce.
This was a topic of discussion on the sidelines of the 1st Safetynet Scientific Conference held in Canberra Australia on 12-15 September 2023. The conference brought together FETP directors from the Asia-Pacific region as well as global, regional and national authorities who implement disease control and pandemic planning initiatives.
As Dr Gina Samaan who heads WHO's global initiative Preparedness and Resilience for Emerging Threats (PRET) highlighted: "WHO is encouraging countries to increase efficiency in pandemic planning through a modes of transmission approach and to focus on multi-sectoral and multi-level preparedness as a pathway to save lives and minimize the societal impact from future pandemics. This needs field epidemiologists who can lead, implement scenario-based pandemic planning and competently coordinate across sectors before and during the emergency." Leadership was a theme echoed by FETP directors including Professor Tony Stewart from the Australian FETP: "Leadership is a key competency for field epidemiologists. To ensure a response-ready workforce, it is essential that we provide training and ongoing retraining for field epidemiologists, coupled with regular simulation exercises, to facilitate a strong public health response at all levels."
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
Recognizing that there are core competencies for field epidemiologists, Dr Ansariadi, Director of the Indonesian FETP at Hasanuddin University noted: "We have to make sure that graduates are fit-for-purpose by training them in a combination of core competencies and emerging priorities such as pandemic planning and response. Networks and partnerships between workforce-strengthening programmes and public health institutions is key to defining needs and delivering on priorities."
Two tangible next steps arose from this dialogue on workforce strengthening. Firstly, WHO's PRET team will work with interested FETPs on competencies and curricula focused on pandemic planning. Secondly, with TEPHINET which is the global network for FETPs, further discussions will be held in other regions and with other workforce strengthening initiatives to align and reflect workforce needs in strategies, policies and programme delivery. As Dr George Shakarishvili from TEPHINET noted: "We have two main tasks: first, we must continue scaling up quantities and improving the quality of FETPs. Second, we have to establish structured and mutually beneficial collaboration between field epidemiology stakeholders and partners working on programmes and systems. Partnerships, like this collaboration with WHO on PRET, will enable us to best serve public health needs during future emergencies including pandemics."
