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Field Epidemiology Training Program Response to COVID-19 During a Conflict: Experience From Yemen

COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the need for a well-trained public health workforce to save lives through timely outbreaks detection and response. In Yemen, a country that is entering its seventh year of a protracted war, the ongoing conflict severely limited the country's capacity to impleme...

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Autores principales: Al Serouri, Abdulwahed Abduljabar, Ghaleb, Yasser Ahmed, Al Aghbari, Labiba Anam, Al Amad, Mohammad Abdullah, Alkohlani, Abdulhakem Sharaf, Almoayed, Khaled Abdullah, Jumaan, Aisha Obad
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8646099/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34881214
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.688119
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author Al Serouri, Abdulwahed Abduljabar
Ghaleb, Yasser Ahmed
Al Aghbari, Labiba Anam
Al Amad, Mohammad Abdullah
Alkohlani, Abdulhakem Sharaf
Almoayed, Khaled Abdullah
Jumaan, Aisha Obad
author_facet Al Serouri, Abdulwahed Abduljabar
Ghaleb, Yasser Ahmed
Al Aghbari, Labiba Anam
Al Amad, Mohammad Abdullah
Alkohlani, Abdulhakem Sharaf
Almoayed, Khaled Abdullah
Jumaan, Aisha Obad
author_sort Al Serouri, Abdulwahed Abduljabar
collection PubMed
description COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the need for a well-trained public health workforce to save lives through timely outbreaks detection and response. In Yemen, a country that is entering its seventh year of a protracted war, the ongoing conflict severely limited the country's capacity to implement effective preparedness and response measures to outbreaks including COVID-19. There are growing concerns that the virus may be circulating within communities undetected and unmitigated especially as underreporting continues in some areas of the country due to a lack of testing facilities, delays in seeking treatment, stigma, difficulty accessing treatment centers, the perceived risks of seeking care or for political issues. The Yemen Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) was launched in 2011 to address the shortage of a skilled public health workforce, with the objective of strengthening capacity in field epidemiology. Thus, events of public health importance can be detected and investigated in a timely and effective manner. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Yemen FETP's response has been instrumental through participating in country-level coordination, planning, monitoring, and developing guidelines/standard operating procedures and strengthening surveillance capacities, outbreak investigations, contact tracing, case management, infection prevention, and control, risk communication, and research. As the third wave is circulating with a steeper upward curve than the previous ones with possible new variants, the country will not be able to deal with a surge of cases as secondary care is extremely crippled. Since COVID-19 prevention and control are the only option available to reduce its grave impact on morbidity and mortality, health partners should support the Yemen FETP to strengthen the health system's response to future epidemics. One important lesson learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in the Yemen context and applicable to developing and war-torn countries, is that access to outside experts becomes limited, therefore, it is crucial to invest in building national expertise to provide timely, cost-effective, and sustainable services that are culturally appropriate. It is also essential to build such expertise at the governorate and district levels, as they are normally the first respondents, and to provide them with the necessary tools for immediate response in order to overcome the disastrous delays.
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spelling pubmed-86460992021-12-07 Field Epidemiology Training Program Response to COVID-19 During a Conflict: Experience From Yemen Al Serouri, Abdulwahed Abduljabar Ghaleb, Yasser Ahmed Al Aghbari, Labiba Anam Al Amad, Mohammad Abdullah Alkohlani, Abdulhakem Sharaf Almoayed, Khaled Abdullah Jumaan, Aisha Obad Front Public Health Public Health COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the need for a well-trained public health workforce to save lives through timely outbreaks detection and response. In Yemen, a country that is entering its seventh year of a protracted war, the ongoing conflict severely limited the country's capacity to implement effective preparedness and response measures to outbreaks including COVID-19. There are growing concerns that the virus may be circulating within communities undetected and unmitigated especially as underreporting continues in some areas of the country due to a lack of testing facilities, delays in seeking treatment, stigma, difficulty accessing treatment centers, the perceived risks of seeking care or for political issues. The Yemen Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) was launched in 2011 to address the shortage of a skilled public health workforce, with the objective of strengthening capacity in field epidemiology. Thus, events of public health importance can be detected and investigated in a timely and effective manner. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Yemen FETP's response has been instrumental through participating in country-level coordination, planning, monitoring, and developing guidelines/standard operating procedures and strengthening surveillance capacities, outbreak investigations, contact tracing, case management, infection prevention, and control, risk communication, and research. As the third wave is circulating with a steeper upward curve than the previous ones with possible new variants, the country will not be able to deal with a surge of cases as secondary care is extremely crippled. Since COVID-19 prevention and control are the only option available to reduce its grave impact on morbidity and mortality, health partners should support the Yemen FETP to strengthen the health system's response to future epidemics. One important lesson learned from the COVID-19 pandemic, especially in the Yemen context and applicable to developing and war-torn countries, is that access to outside experts becomes limited, therefore, it is crucial to invest in building national expertise to provide timely, cost-effective, and sustainable services that are culturally appropriate. It is also essential to build such expertise at the governorate and district levels, as they are normally the first respondents, and to provide them with the necessary tools for immediate response in order to overcome the disastrous delays. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-11-22 /pmc/articles/PMC8646099/ /pubmed/34881214 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.688119 Text en Copyright © 2021 Al Serouri, Ghaleb, Al Aghbari, Al Amad, Alkohlani, Almoayed and Jumaan. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Public Health
Al Serouri, Abdulwahed Abduljabar
Ghaleb, Yasser Ahmed
Al Aghbari, Labiba Anam
Al Amad, Mohammad Abdullah
Alkohlani, Abdulhakem Sharaf
Almoayed, Khaled Abdullah
Jumaan, Aisha Obad
Field Epidemiology Training Program Response to COVID-19 During a Conflict: Experience From Yemen
title Field Epidemiology Training Program Response to COVID-19 During a Conflict: Experience From Yemen
title_full Field Epidemiology Training Program Response to COVID-19 During a Conflict: Experience From Yemen
title_fullStr Field Epidemiology Training Program Response to COVID-19 During a Conflict: Experience From Yemen
title_full_unstemmed Field Epidemiology Training Program Response to COVID-19 During a Conflict: Experience From Yemen
title_short Field Epidemiology Training Program Response to COVID-19 During a Conflict: Experience From Yemen
title_sort field epidemiology training program response to covid-19 during a conflict: experience from yemen
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8646099/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34881214
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2021.688119
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