The United States Government has commenced the training of public health emergency operations center staff from Nigeria, Benin, Ghana, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Liberia, and Mali.
A statement by the US Embassy in Abuja said the intermediate level training was hosted by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. CDC, in collaboration with the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.
A total of seventeen staff from the West African countries graduated on Saturday, in the first cohort of the Regional Public Health Emergency Management Training in Abuja.
“Seventeen public health emergency operations center staff members from countries across the region (Nigeria, Benin, Ghana, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Liberia, and Mali) participated in the two-week training,” the statement read.
It noted that the public health workers learned and strengthened the skills needed to effectively operate incident management systems for outbreak preparedness and response.
The US expressed optimism that as a result of the training, the region is now better equipped to prepare for and respond to epidemics and pandemics.
In her remarks at the graduation ceremony, the U.S. CDC Division of Global Health Protection Acting Program Director Asmau Aminu-Alhaji, thanked the graduates for their dedication to public health both at home and across the region and highlighted the importance of public health collaboration and communication across borders.
The Public Health Emergency Management Professional Certification Program is part of the U.S. Government’s support for global health Security in Nigeria and globally.
The programme provides emergency operations staff and other public health experts with specialized training in public health emergency management, operations, and other critical preparedness and response skills.
