Frontline Field Epidemiology Training Programs as a Strategy to Improve Disease Surveillance and Response

Abstract

Since 1980, Field Epidemiology Training Programs (FETPs) have trained highly qualified field epidemiologists to work for ministries of health (MOH) around the world. However, the 2013-2015 Ebola epidemic in West Africa, which primarily affected Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, demonstrated a lack of field epidemiologists at the local levels. Trained epidemiologists at these levels could have detected the Ebola outbreak earlier. In 2015, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) launched FETP-Frontline, a 3-month field training program targeting local MOH staff in 24 countries to augment local public health capacity. As of December 2016, FETP-Frontline has trained 1,354 graduates in 24 countries. FETP-Frontline enhances global health security by training local public health staff to improve surveillance quality in their jurisdictions, which can be a valuable strategy to strengthen the capacity of countries to more rapidly detect, respond to, and contain public health emergencies at the source.

Keywords: FETP; Field Epidemiology Training Program; IDSR; epidemiology; field epidemiology; global health security; outbreak; surveillance; training.

Figure 1

General program schedule showing the 3 classroom workshops (green boxes) and 2 field stages (gray boxes) in a standard Frontline Field Epidemiology Training Program curriculum.

Figure 2

Geographic coverage of Frontline Field Epidemiology Training Programs established (black), July–December 2016.

Figure 3

Frontline Field Epidemiology Training Programs launched and cumulative number of participants trained by quarter (Q) of program launch through Q4 2016. Quarter of launch is defined by the date of the first classroom session.