Epidemiology

Archived Posts from this Category

January 25, 2012

First announcement: PENAPH technical workshop 2012

Posted by Jeff Mariner under Animal Health, Disease Control, Epidemiology, Livestock, PENAPH
Leave a Comment 

The Participatory Epidemiology Network for Animal and Public Health (PENAPH) is a partnership of organizations and individuals that seek to facilitate the continued development and application of participatory methods in epidemiology. PENAPH partners include animal health and public health organizations committed to one health and ecohealth approaches. The overall goal of PENAPH is to enhance epidemiological services in the developing world by making them more representative of and responsive to the needs of beneficiaries.

PENAPH is pleased to announce that it will hold a technical workshop to bring together trainers, practitioners and others interested in Participatory Epidemiology (PE) and its applications in animal health, one health and ecohealth. The organization of the workshop is supported by a grant to ILRI from the Rockefeller Foundation through the Empowering National and Regional Stakeholders Grant. ILRI hosts the PENAPH secretariat. The Technical Workshop will produce an electronic proceedings that contains the papers presented and results of discussion forums.

Communications concerning the Technical Workshop will be posted on www.penaph.net and broadcast by E-mail to PENEPH members. To assure prompt notification of workshop developments, the Workshop Committee suggests those interested visit the website and follow the link ‘Join our online community’ to join PENAPH.

The objectives of the Technical Workshop are to:

  • Document and exchange experiences in PE
  • Report results of mentored field studies from PE training programs
  • Report regional and national partner activities
  • Document workshop proceedings and papers in an electronic publication
  • Plan the future of the network

Program activities

  • Presentation of papers
  • Discussion forums
  • Poster session
  • Social events

Call for papers:

A call for papers will be initiated in the near future and submission reviewed. Applications involving animal health, public health and one health will be of interest. It is envisaged that session themes will include, but not be limited to:

  • Project and program experiences involving PE
  • Research on PE methods
  • Epidemiological research involving PE methods
  • Methods for assessments and evaluations of programs that include PE
  • Participatory impact assessment of health related activities

Discussion forums:

It is planned that these will be facilitated discussion focused on questions put forward by the PENAPH community. As part of the conference registration process, registrants will have the opportunity to suggest discussion questions.

Funding:

The core organization of the workshop and a limited number of stipends for participants from developing countries are funded through the project. The Empowering National and Regional Stakeholders Project has limited funds to support participants from developing countries. Participants from developing countries who have a paper or poster accepted and do not have an on-going sponsoring project for their work will be given priority.

Projects active in the area of PE are encouraged to support participants to the workshop as an opportunity to share their findings. Information on projected costs for self-funded participants will be made available in the second announcement.

Target Date:

Three days in early December 2012

Venue:

A developing country location – suggestions welcome through the PENAPH website and blog. Submit your suggestion as a COMMENT on this blogpost.

 

Background: PENAPH has had two core partners meetings where the formation and operating principles of the network has been the main topic. PENAPH has conducted training of trainers workshops in English and in French, conducted pilot training programs on the use of PE in one health and hosts a website on participatory epidemiology (www.penaph.net).  Those interested are encouraged to visit the website to learn more. At present, 13 organizations and 225 individuals are members of PENAPH.

This PENAPH Technical Workshop is intended as a next step to bring together all core and organizational partners as well as interested individuals.

Under the Empowering National and Regional Stakeholder Project, funding is also available to support 5 mentored field studies to assist practitioner trainees to complete their practical experience requirements. The call for applications for Mentored PE Studies support is being announced at www.penaph.net and the trainees will be required to submit the results of their studies as a paper for presentation to the Technical Workshop.

Please share the information with interested colleagues and watch the PENAPH site for more news and announcements!

 

December 22, 2011

Empowering national and regional stakeholders: Renewed funding for PENAPH

Posted by Jeff Mariner under Epidemiology, PENAPH
Leave a Comment 

Good news! PENAPH has received renewed funding from the Rockefeller Foundation under the title Empowering National and Regional Stakeholders. The grant has three main components. The first is modest allocations to support individuals to complete mentored PE studies as part of the training process to obtain certification as a PE partitioners. The second is small grants to national or regional groups of PE practitioners to form local PE network organizations and carry out inception activities. The third component is funding for a PENAPH Technical Workshop for presentation of experiences and planning future initiatives. Detailed announcements and calls for applications for the project activities will be posted on the PENAPH website after the New Year.

 

February 24, 2011

Institutional Analysis to Enhance Performance of Surveillance Systems

Posted by Jeff Mariner under Animal Health, Epidemiology, Surveillance
Leave a Comment 

The 9 PENAPH partners have prepared a discussion paper on institutional approaches to surveillance systems that  has been selected for presentation at the International Conference on Animal Health Surveillance to be held in Lyon France on May 2011. The following is an introduction to the paper.

Globally, it is recognized that effective health surveillance plays a critical role that requires ongoing reinforcement in helping to assure the well-being of the earth and its living populations. . This recognition is taking place within a context of a renewed call for more effective and comprehensive integration of health efforts under headings such as ’One Health’ or ‘Ecohealth’, which assume inclusion of human, animal, and ecosystem health.

Health surveillance is a complex activity that brings together a broad range of actors and organizations whose interactions are governed by sets of formal and informal rules. Achieving effective health surveillance has been challenging within the context of conventional health science institutions. This has resulted in part from approaches in the past that have emphasized technical issues over the reality of how people are motivated to work together and share information. The current excitement about One Health approaches stems in part from the added value that integrated institutions can bring to activities such as health surveillance. However, the One Health approach also brings new challenges and transaction costs. In order to succeed in enhancing surveillance and capturing the added value of One Health approaches, it is important that these challenges, incentives and disincentives are explicitly recognized. 

The Participatory Epidemiology Network for Animal and Public Health (PENAPH) advocates for an institutional approach to capacity building that starts from an assessment of institutions and institutional objectives. In the social sciences, an “institution” is defined as a combination of actors and the mechanisms through which they interact to achieve a common purpose.  The authors wish to suggest that the inclusion of an institutional analysis framework into evaluations of surveillance systems can provide new insights into surveillance performance, optimization and sustainability. By explicitly including elements of attitudes, expectations, customary practice, and values a better understanding of why information is or is not moving can be achieved.  We believe institutional analysis is an essential tool for leaders in health surveillance institutional change. In this paper we present an example of an institutional framework for designing surveillance systems, formulating and targeting capacity building activities, and evaluating success.

 

February 23, 2011

Participatory disease surveillance in Armenia

Posted by ILRI Communications under Animal Health, Asia, Epidemiology, Livestock | Tags: , , , |
Leave a Comment 

This week, Syed Noman Ali provides an update on some work by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and others to  introduce participatory epidemiology to strengthen animal disease surveillance and control of Zoonotic diseases including highly pathogenic avian influenza in Armenia.

Read the blogpost

 

August 9, 2010

PE introductory training at Chiang Mai University, Thailand

Posted by Saskia Hendrickx under Asia, Disease Control, Epidemiology, PENAPH
1 Comment 

Collaboration between the Participatory Epidemiology Network for Animal and Public Health (PENAPH) and the Chiang Mai University’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Chiang Mai, Thailand regarding participatory epidemiology (PE) has taken place since 2009.

After a short briefing course on PE in March 2010 by Dr Jeff Mariner from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the Veterinary Public Health Centre for Asia Pacific (VPHCAP) decided to include a full 10-day course on PE as part of the short training course on Surveillance, Emergency Preparedness and Response from 12 July to 6 August 2010.

Two ILRI facilitators provided the course for a total of 24 participants from 13 different Asian countries (Bhutan, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Viet Nam). Nine of the participants are students of the Masters in Veterinary Public Health at the above-mentioned centre.

The participants were very receptive to PE approaches and many mentioned that they would be applying them in their day-to-day work. As part of the training course, five field practices were organized (two on dairy cattle, two on poultry and one on pigs) so that all participants had the opportunity to practise an interview while in Chiang Mai. The course was successfully completed and we hope that this is a first step to more PENAPH work in Asia in the future.

 

April 1, 2010

Introduction to participatory epidemiology for Ugandan FELTP fellows

Posted by Saskia Hendrickx under AFENET, Africa, Capacity Strengthening, Epidemiology, PENAPH, Public health
[4] Comments 

A first introductory course in participatory epidemiology (PE) was organized by the Participatory Epidemiology Network for Animal and Public Health (PENAPH) and the African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET) between 15 and 25 March 2010 in Arua, Uganda. The nineteen participants were second year students from the Ugandan Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Program (FELTP) and teaching staff from the School of Public Health, Makerere University.

The objectives of the course were as follows:

  1. To introduce the general principles of PE as well as specific tools;
  2. To promote community participation as part of field epidemiology;
  3. To promote the use of participatory disease surveillance as a component of comprehensive disease surveillance programs;
  4. To develop course materials that will serve as a reference handbook for trainees;
  5. To contribute to the sustainability of the AFENET – PENAPH collaboration by serving as an important public good outcome.

Two documents will result from the training materials developed: a training manual for trainers in PE and a module for the participants to have as a reference document. Once ready, the documents will be published online and shared with PE practitioners and trainers worldwide through the PENAPH community of practice.

As a follow up to the introductory course, the participants will conduct field work in small teams on a topic of their interest. A refresher course is scheduled for August 2010, during which the participants will present the findings of their field work and we will review some of the topics addressed during the introductory course.

 

 

February 4, 2010

Participatory epidemiology trainers meet up in Togo

Posted by Saskia Hendrickx under Animal Health, Capacity Strengthening, Epidemiology, PENAPH, West Africa
Leave a Comment 

Training course for trainers in Participatory Epidemiology for Francophone countries in West Africa

A 5-day training course for trainers in Participatory Epidemiology (PE) was held in Lomé (Togo) from 25 until 29 of January 2010. The 11 participants were selected from the 29 Participatory Disease Surveillance (PDS) practitioners trained in Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire and Togo as part of the Early Detection Reporting Surveillance – Avian Influenza in Africa (EDRSAIA) project. This was the first training for trainers in PE to be conducted for Francophone countries in West Africa.

The objectives of the training course (see previous posting) were met with positive feed back from the participants. As agreed by the PE experts during the TOT in Naivasha in April 2009, the trainees are not yet full PE trainers. For that they will have to conduct at least one PE training course supported by an experienced PE trainer. Different funding possibilities for future activities were discussed and possible funding sources identified.

 

January 15, 2010

Training course for trainers in Participatory Epidemiology, Lomé (Togo) 25 – 29 January 2010

Posted by Saskia Hendrickx under Animal Health, Capacity Strengthening, Disease Control, Epidemiology, PENAPH, West Africa | Tags: , , |
Leave a Comment 

A 5-day training course for trainers in Participatory Epidemiology (PE) will be held in Lomé (Togo) from 25 until 29 of January 2010.

The 11 participants were selected from the 29 Participatory Disease Surveillance (PDS) practitioners trained in Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire and Togo as part of the Early Detection Reporting Surveillance – Avian Influenza in Africa (EDRSAIA) project. This is the first training for trainers in PE to be conducted for Francophone countries in West Africa.

Objectives of the training workshop

By the end of the workshop, the participants will be able to:

1. Describe the basic principles of adult learning and apply them to training programs.

2. Describe the key elements that define Participatory Epidemiology (PE) and Participatory Disease Surveillance (PDS).

3. Design, plan and implement PE training, including:

  • Training in the development and testing of a PE hypothesis.
  • Training in the development of a PE checklist.
  • Training in the use of PE tools such as semi-structured interviews, ranking techniques and visualisation techniques.
  • Action plan and field monitoring for trainees.

4. Record and analyse information received and understand ways to use this information at different levels.

5. Understand the roles, benefits and limitations of PE/PDS in disease surveillance and research and be able to apply facilitation techniques with decision makers and donors to support its use.

 

December 15, 2009

Introducing PENAPH and PE

Posted by ILRI Communications under Animal Health, Disease Control, Epidemiology, Livestock, PENAPH
Comments Off 

With human and veterinary medicine integrated into a common approach, participatory epidemiology is a powerful tool in international public health. Many initiatives in Africa and Asia have demonstrated that participatory methods empower communities and encourage teamwork between farmers, veterinarians, nurses, doctors, governments and other specialists. As a result, lives are changed through improved health, livelihood security and cleaner environments.

Stakeholder driven and action-oriented, participatory epidemiology’s greatest strengths are its evidence-based approach to problem identification and formulation of solutions: gathering epidemiological intelligence for disease surveillance, impact assessment and control, disease recovery, prevention of re-infection, project development, environmental monitoring and epidemiological research.

Improving the control of diseases which pose a public health threat, such as highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), requires strengthening our capacities to rapidly detect disease outbreaks and to take appropriate actions to control transmission – to both animals and humans. Responsiveness to diseases which flow between animals and people depends on cooperation between the veterinary, human and environmental health sectors, public services and of course, people who live in close quarters with animals and those who tend livestock. All of these players are partners are integral for early detection of emerging zoonotic infections, as well as for control and prevention of non-emerging threats. Participatory epidemiology provides an ideal forum for these players to interact synergistically, drawing on each other’s strengths to combat disease and improve health.

 

Follow

Get every new post delivered to your Inbox.