ITANAGAR, 22 Feb: A ‘3×3 epidemiology workshop’ for DSOs and epidemiologists of all districts is underway in the capital.
The workshop, being held from 17 to 23 February, is expected to strengthen the capacity to prevent, detect, investigate and respond to public health events and disease outbreaks.
Being conducted by the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), in partnership with the US Centre for Disease Control (CDC) and the World Health Organization’s (WHO) India office, and with support from the state surveillance office, the workshop is also aimed to capacitate the state in efficient surveillance and sharing and dissemination of health information.
The ongoing session is the second in the state. The first contact session was held from 27 to 29 October, 2021.
For the workshop, the districts were divided into two groups of 13 districts each, with the duration of the course being three months, including one contact session of three days per month, for three consecutive months (ie, in the 3×3 format).
The training programme is a combination of classroom lectures and ‘learning by doing’ in the field. The district teams are being trained in public health surveillance system, including integrated health information platform, outbreak investigation, role of laboratories, scientific presentations, and rapid response planning.
CDC public health consultant Dr Sukarma Tanwar, NCDC public health specialist Navin Verma, NCDC Joint Director Ramesh Chandra and NCDC public health specialist Dr Ameya held the first session from 17 to 19 February, along with a team from SAFETYNET and VHS-CDC.
A special session on ‘utility of laboratory component for outbreaks’ was conducted by NCDC Additional Director Dr Sunil Gupta.
The second session was held on 21 February, during which State Surveillance Officer Dr L Jampa presented the public health status update, while Dr Dukam Taipodia made a ‘past presentation of Covid-19 status update’.
The first group of the eastern districts of Arunachal Pradesh has already completed its second contact session, and four of the districts (Lohit, Changlang, Lower Dibang Valley and Upper Siang) are representing the state at the 28th Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine conference in Nagpur, which will be held from 6 to 10 March.
Currently, the first contact session for the second group of western districts is continuing till 23 February.
