NIH, Japan-FETP organise online session on disease surveillance
Celina Ali
Islamabad: Pakistan Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP), National Institutes of Health (NIH) Islamabad in collaboration with Japan-FETP, this week organized a special online session on the “Role of FETPs in Disease Surveillance and Prevention/ Control of Diseases.”
This session was originally initiated with good communication and collaboration between the Pakistan Center for Disease Control (CDC) of NIH and the Embassy of Japan in Islamabad during the challenging time of COVID-19.
The session aimed to highlight the crucial role of Field Epidemiology Training Programs in disease surveillance, prevention, and control. The FETPs are basically designed to train public health professionals in the field of epidemiology and enable them to support the development and enhancement of surveillance systems for the timely detection and reporting of diseases, said a press release issued by the Japan Embassy in Islamabad.
Hitoshi Kikawada, a member of the House of Representatives of Japan Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and former State Minister of the Cabinet Office in charge of Policies against COVID-19 was the chief guest of the session. Fellows from the FETPs, health experts, and partners also attended.
In his video message, Kikawada, stated, “We have faced a pandemic of COVID-19 for more than three years and have understood that infectious diseases have changed our economies and societies dramatically and overcoming infectious diseases has become one of the most important issues of the human beings.” He also said that Japan has dealt with COVID-19 successfully. Japan has contributed to universal healthcare with ODA for a long time and through these experiences, Japan can play a more active role in medical areas in Asia. In this sense, it is wonderful that Japan and Pakistan have been working in these medical areas, he mentioned.
During the session, a representative from CDC Pakistan and Dr. Tomimasa Sunagawa, MD Director, Center of Field Epidemic Intelligence, Research and Professional Development, National Institute of Infectious Diseases in Japan gave lectures, focusing on disease outbreak investigation and the strengthening of the surveillance system for the timely detection and reporting of infections.
