Nigeria to offer free training on ebola
The Nigerian Government has offered to train two people each from the Ebola affected countries at the Nigeria Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Programme (NFELTP) for free.
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The training is aimed at helping the countries most affected with the disease, namely, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, to manage and contain the disease.
The Project Director, Nigerian Centre for Disease Control, Dr Abdulsalam Nasidi, made this known at the Fifth Extraordinary Meeting of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Assembly of Health Ministers on Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak in Accra on Thursday.
According to him, over 200 people have so far been trained under the programme, in the field of epidemiology and public health, and they are those who have helped the country to contain the spread of the Ebola virus.
The NFELTP offers a Masters of Public Health (MPH) in Field Epidemiology, Laboratory Epidemiology and Management, and Veterinary Epidemiology.
The NFELTP
An affiliate of the University of Ibadan and Ahmadu Bello University, the NFELTP, offers a a two-year training programme aimed at improving public health systems in Nigeria through training of field epidemiologists and public health laboratory technicians and the provision of epidemiological services.
It was established in 2008, with support from the Division for Global Public Health Capacity Development in the Co-ordinating Office for Global Health at the United States Centre for Disease Control, the Global AIDS Programme in Nigeria, and the Federal Ministry of Health of Nigeria.
Addressing the health ministers and health experts at the meeting, the Director-General of the West African Health Organisation (WAHO), Dr Xavier Crespin, said given the inadequate epidemiological surveillance system in the region, there was the need for preventive actions to be taken by member countries against a possible spread of the Ebola disease in the entire region.
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The Regional Director of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Regional Office for Africa, Dr Luis Gomes Sambo said, the organisation was working with various partners, through the Sub-Regional Ebola Outbreak Co-ordinating Centre based in Gunuea, Conakry, to manage the outbreak.
According to him, the African Federation of Public Health Association was participating in the identification of health specialists to be sent to the affected countries.