The Egypt Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP), in collaboration with GHD| EMPHNET, implemented the Public Health Empowerment Program - Basic Field Epidemiology (PHEP-BFE) between July and October 2017. The PHEP-BFE is an in-service program that provides didactic and field training in the fundamentals of surveillance, outbreak investigation, and emergency response.

In its first cohort, the program targeted 25 public health sanitarians who are responsible for disease surveillance and response at the district level. Six of these sanitarians work in Cairo, and the other nineteen work in governorates across Egypt. The PHEP-BFE targeted this segment on account of the essential role they play especially in the areas of data collection and outbreak investigation. The program focused on enhancing the current job performance of these sanitarians, particularly in data collection and analysis, as well as the detection and reporting of outbreaks.

The PHEP-BFE curriculum consists of three training workshops. As part of this program, residents also completed two field work periods. The first lasted for five weeks after the first training workshop, while the second lasted for three weeks after the second. In these field projects, each resident was mentored by a supervisor.

The sessions of the first workshop were conducted from July 31 to August 13, 2017. Topics covered during this period included basics in epidemiology, statistics, and public health surveillance. To apply these concepts, residents analyzed their unit’s recent surveillance data. They summarized their analysis in a report, and then conducted a data quality audit followed by feedback visits to selected reporting sites. These field projects were presented in the opening sessions of the second workshop conducted from September 2 to 8, 2017.

The second workshop focused on fundamentals of outbreak investigation, epidemiology and emergency risk communication, and topics relevant to Rapid Response Teams (RRTs). After the second training, the residents engaged in their second field period. Their field projects varied from writing case investigation to writing outbreak investigation reports. They also summarized additional surveillance data and they conducted an analysis of the surveillance quality problem.

The third training workshop primarily covered topics aimed at enhancing residents’ skills in health problem framing and analysis. During this workshop, participants presented their fieldwork projects and were evaluated on these projects.

On the last day of the third workshop, October 15, 2017, the First Cohort’s graduation ceremony took place. The ceremony was attended by the Deputy Minister Dr. Amr Kandeel; Director General of Infectious Diseases Control Department Dr. Mohammad Junaidi; Country Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Egypt Dr. Mark Wooster; and Executive Director of GHD| EMPHNET Dr. Mohannad Al-Nsour.