Second consultative workshop on the African Epidemic Service programme
From 2 to 4 May 2023, two ECDC experts in epidemiology and health informatics participated in the second consultative workshop for the establishment of the African Epidemic Service programme held at the Institut Pasteur Du Maroc in Casablanca, Morocco.
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has developed an African Epidemic Service (AES) programme: a health workforce development programme hosted and directed by the African Union. The AES has three distinct tracks: public health informatics, epidemiology, and public health laboratory leadership. The programme is expected to mirror the European Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training (EPIET) of ECDC, and the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC).
The objectives of the workshop were to develop a roadmap on the operationalisation of the three-year strategic proposal developed by Africa CDC, obtain buy-in from relevant stakeholders, and gather inputs on the AES curriculum. Alongside providing input to working groups aligned with the three tracks of the AES programme, ECDC’s Head of Training also presented the EPIET fellowship programme as an example of a field epidemiology programme to serve as a potential inspiration for the design of the AES programme.
