19 frontline workers graduate from field epidemiology training in Botswana

GABORONE, Oct. 20 — The first 19 frontline workers graduated from the Botswana Field Epidemiology Training Program Wednesday, which is expected to help strengthen the country’s public health system.
Acting Minister of Health Sethomo Lelatisitswe said during a graduation ceremony in Gaborone, the nation’s capital, that the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for a robust, resilient, and sustainable public health system.
“Botswana has with renewed determination sought ways of strengthening our public health response capacities and one way is to have a Field Epidemiology Training Program,” said Lelatisitswe.
The program is an in-service competency-based training program in applied epidemiology and public health.
Surveillance officers, community health nurses, laboratory scientists and technologists, and monitoring and evaluation officers are among those that were targeted by the three-month training program. The trainees were selected from various district health management teams across the country and they received training on disease outbreak prevention, detection, and response, as well as other public health threats and emergencies.
Lelatisitswe said that the skilled graduates will not only improve public health intelligence and security in the southern African country, but also build public health operation research capacity and advance program monitoring and evaluation, allowing the country to better prevent, protect against, and respond to the international spread of diseases.  (Xinhua)