Coordinating Office for Global Health - DGPHCD

Nigeria Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program (N-FELTP)

The Nigeria Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program (FELTP) is currently under the final stages of development.  The overall goals of the program are to provide service to the Federal MOH and work towards improving public health systems within the country through the training of field epidemiologists and public health laboratorians.
Veterinary epidemiologists will be trained along with public health professionals in order to address the ever-growing threats of zoonotic and epizootic diseases.  Veterinary epidemiologists have been included in FETPs and FELTPs in the past; however, the Nigerian FELTP will be the first applied epidemiology program of its kind to offer a veterinary track. The program aims to increase collaboration and strengthen linkages between epidemiologists and laboratorians, as well as between the human and the animal health sectors.

The two-year program is expected to begin in mid October 2008 and will lead to the award of MPH in either field epidemiology, veterinary epidemiology or laboratory epidemiology and management by the two participating universities. Until then, short courses in outbreak investigation and response and TB/HIV have been offered to state and federal public health professionals to strengthen the capacity to investigate and respond to outbreaks and to work together across disciplines collaboratively.  The second series of short courses being offered in 2009 should aim to include as many veterinary epidemiologists as possible to strengthen collaboration between epidemiologists working in both animal and human health sectors.
Partners for implementation of the Nigeria FELTP; the Nigeria Ministry of Health (MOH), the Nigeria Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources (MAWR), University of Ibadan (UI), Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), CDC Nigeria and CDC Atlanta, finalized and agreed upon an implementation plan for the FELTP. 

To address the need for training veterinarians, the Coordinating Office for Global Health (COGH), Division of Global Public Health Capacity Development (DGPHCD) is collaborating with the National Center for Zoonotic, Vector-Borne, and Enteric Diseases (NCZVED). The goals of this collaboration for COGH/ DGPHCD and NCZVED will be to provide technical support to the Nigerian Federal Ministries of Health and Agriculture & Water Resources to enhance the quantity and quality of applied epidemiology training with an emphasis on zoonotic diseases, especially avian influenza; and provide technical and financial assistance to the Federal Ministry of Health of Nigeria to enhance disease specific program monitoring and evaluation leading to evidence-based decisions for the overall improvement of public health practice in Nigeria.
The Nigerian FELTP will select 13 participants (Fellows) in the first cohort; the breakdown will be as follows:

• 6 field epidemiologists,
• 4 veterinary epidemiologists, and
• 3 public health laboratorians. 

The Nigerian FELTP will begin its program in partnership with 2 universities; Field Epidemiologists, Veterinary Epidemiologist and Public Health Laboratorians will be enrolled at either University of Ibadan (UI) or Ahmadu Bello University (ABU). 

Nigeria- FELTP Background
Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program (FELTP) is a competency based training and service program in applied epidemiology and public health that builds the capacity to strengthen the surveillance and response system in countries where they are implemented.

The Nigerian FELTP will be a two year in service training program in applied epidemiology and public health laboratory practice, created to be a long-term ongoing program within the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH).  It will train Field Epidemiology Fellows, Public Health Laboratory Fellows and Veterinary Epidemiology Fellows for leadership positions in various levels of both the Ministry of Health (MOH) and the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA).  The Fellows will provide service to the FMOH and the State Ministry of Health (SMOH), as well as the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources (FMAWR) and the State Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources (SMAWR) during their training through long-term field placements.

The field epidemiology component will be similar to programs that have been established in more than 25 other countries and modeled after CDC’s two-year Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) training program. The public health laboratory training component will be based on CDC’s Emerging Infections Program which is a one-year applied laboratory training program.

All training will take place in Nigeria.

N-FELTP Goals:

• To develop a self-sustaining institutionalized capacity to train public health leaders in field epidemiology and field-oriented public health laboratory practice.
• To provide epidemiological services to the public health system at federal, state, and local levels.

N-FELTP Objectives:

1. Primary Objectives

• Training: train leaders in applied epidemiology and public health laboratory practice; emphasis is on problem solving issues of public health concern
• Service: provide epidemiologic services to federal, state, and local government health authorities in Nigeria

• Strengthen capacity to respond to public health emergencies such as outbreaks, epidemics, natural disasters, and emerging infectious diseases
• Strengthen public health and veterinary surveillance systems
• Strengthen laboratory participation in surveillance and field investigation
• Strengthen the linkage between public health and veterinary epidemiology
• Conduct research activities on priority public health problems
• Improve communications and networking within the country and throughout the region
• Strengthen affiliations with international organizations, such as the Training in Epidemiology and Public Health Interventions Network (TEPHINET), the umbrella organization of applied epidemiology training programs, the Africa Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET), an organization of applied epidemiology training programs located in Africa, and other applied epidemiology and laboratory training programs in other countries

Achievements:

• AFENET Membership
• N-FELTP steering committee
• Five short courses, one successfully completed and four others awaiting report presentation
• Foster collaboration with WHO in the area of outbreak investigation through capacity building of WHO state desk officers and zonal officers
• Long course program about take – off

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