KENYA STEPS UP THE NUMBER OF FIELD EPIDEMIOLOGY QUALIFIED WORKERS
Twenty-five trainees drawn from national, and sub national veterinary services graduated from the second in country In-Service Applied Veterinary Epidemiology Training (ISAVET) on 27September 2022. The trainees were drawn from 17 semi-arid and high potential counties, the Regional Veterinary Investigation Laboratory, Farmers Choice Limited and Busia point of entry.
These frontline animal health professionals are now skilled in applied epidemiology, One Health approach and community engagement capabilities for better control and management of emerging and re-emerging zoonotic diseases, through the use of new diagnostic and surveillance skills. The four-month long training entailed a month-long classwork that focused on participatory disease surveillance, response to field cases, communication, preparedness, ethics and professionalism and One Health. All trainees successfully completed practical field training in their respective work stations and participated in producing weekly surveillance reports, conducting data quality audits and field case studies to address county-specific animal health needs.
On behalf of FAO Representative, Folorunso Fasina, the FAO Emergency Center for Transboundary Animal Diseases (ECTAD) Country Team Leader, congratulated the grandaunts and encouraged then to put into practice what they had learnt over the last four months for the benefit of their immediate community and Kenya as a whole. He promised that ‘FAO will continue to work very closely with multiple local, subnational, and national partners, as well as other international organizations, which are delivering services for the good people of Kenya. FAO also acknowledges the funding supports of the United State Agency for International Development (USAID), who continue to support works aimed at institutionalizing and operationalizing One Health and animal health in Kenya’.
In his remarks, Dr. Harry Oyas, the Senior Deputy Director in charge of Disease Control, who represented the Director of Veterinary Services (DVS), lauded the significant contributions of ISAVET to animal health service delivery in Kenya. He added that “as part of capacity building, the DVS through collaboration of FAO have supported the training of three cohorts, from 40 of the 47 counties. He confirmed that the milestones would not have been reached without the great work put in by various stakeholders and people within the ISAVET structure; and took the opportunity to thank the trainers and mentors for the selfless works. He concluded by stating that “for program sustainability, there is need for more stakeholders’ engagement.”
“The ISAVET training has built my skills in disease surveillance, data management and outbreak investigation. Even before completion of the training programme, immediately after the completion of the one-month in class training, my county director of Veterinary Services assigned me a new role of managing the county disease information database, a role I effortlessly execute from data management skills acquired during ISAVET training.” Said Dr. Collince Masheti, an ISAVET graduate from Kakamega County.
“As an ISAVET graduate, I will utilise these skills in improving the epidemiosurveillance system in my country for prevention, early detection, and timely response of priority zoonotic diseases such as anthrax and transboundary animal diseases, such as foot-and-mouth disease, which are of concern to the county.” Dr Masheti adds.
At the graduation ceremony, trainees presented field case reports using a One Health approach, covering various thematic areas, including field and abattoir surveillance of priority zoonotic diseases and transboundary animal diseases, participatory epidemiology for disease surveillance, and knowledge, attitude and practices (KAP) surveys.
In addition, the celebration of the 16th World Rabies Day on 29 September 2022 and the contribution of the ISAVET Programme to the overall goal of eliminating human dog-mediated rabies in Kenya were highlighted. Among the reports that were disseminated in the workshop prior to the graduation ceremony were: 1). Assessment of Knowledge, Attitude and Practices and Canine Rabies Prevention and Control, Kasarani Sub-County, Nairobi, 2). Retrospective Analysis of Human Dog-bite cases handled in Health Facilities in Mukurweini in sub-county 2018-2021 and 3). Characterization of Human Dog bites, temporal spatial distribution in Igambang'ombe sub-county, Tharaka Nithi County, 2018 -2021.
Other priority zoonotic diseases addressed by the trainees include Rift Valley fever, brucellosis andhydatidosis. On antimicrobial resistance and infectious disease risk mapping, the trainees addressed these through a case report on the prevalence of coliform mastitis and antibiotic susceptibility in bovine milk samples submitted at Regional Veterinary Investigation Laboratory, in Nakuru, between January 2021 and April 2022, and a study on the investigation and factors associated with livestock movement and mapping of common routes, in Eldama Ravine sub-county, Baringo county.
With this graduation, the second cohort of ISAVET trainees join the network of applied field epidemiologists with improved skills to collect, analyse, and interpret data and contribute to evidence-based decisions.