Seventeen public health emergency operations centre staff members from countries across the region – Nigeria, Benin, Ghana, Sierra Leone, The Gambia, Liberia, and Mali, have ended a two-week training under the Regional Public Health Emergency Management programme.
The training, held in Abuja was geared towards strengthening the skills needed to effectively operate incident management systems needed “for outbreak preparedness and response.”
A statement by the U.S. Embassy, Abuja, said that with the training, “the region is now better equipped to prepare for and respond to epidemics and pandemics.”
The statement noted that “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.”
In her remarks at the graduation ceremony, the U.S. CDC Division of Global Health Protection Acting Programme 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 Embassy statement noted that “the Public Health Emergency Management Professional Certification Programme is part of the U.S. Government’s support for global health Security in Nigeria and globally.
“It 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.”
