In Baluchistan province, an Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) System was launched in 2019 with the support of the National Institute of Health (NIH), the Provincial Health Department and the UK Health Security Agency’s (UKHSA) International Health Regulations Strengthening Project (IHR-SP). IDSR played a significant role in strengthening the department’s capacities to detect, prevent and respond to priority infectious disease threats in the province. Most recently, the Provincial Health Department appointed surveillance officers to strengthen IDSR at district level. In this context, the IHR-SP and NIH organized a five day training to build the capacity of surveillance officers in IDSR, District Health Information System 2 (DHIS-2) and outbreak response.
A total of 30 surveillance officers attended the training workshop. UKHSA’s standardized IDSR cascade training modules were used to deliver different sessions. The training modules were;
- Introduction to IHR & IDSR
- Public Health Surveillance & Outbreak Investigation
- Multi-sector Outbreak Plan
- Public Health Labs and Lab Network
- Priority Infectious Disease Case Definitions
- Disease Data Flow onto DHIS 2
- Risk Assessment & Communication
Figure 1 Group photo of training participants with facilitators from NIH and UKHSA
Multiple case scenarios were used to help participants understand. To practice digital disease data entry on DHIS 2, hands on sessions were conducted.
The training aimed to enable the collection of weekly priority disease data from public sector health facilities in the province. This will help the surveillance officers identify an alert, cluster or outbreak by reviewing weekly disease data/reports. Additionally, the surveillance officers will also cascade the training to frontline surveillance staff and health care providers in their respective districts.
To monitor the quality of training, pre- and post- tests and participant feedback was gathered by UKHSA IHR-SP’s Monitoring, Reporting and Evaluation team. A detailed post training evaluation will also be conducted to track the participants’ knowledge retention and make improvements in content and delivery of IDSR cascade trainings in other provinces or regions in Pakistan.
Figure 2 Training participants during the IDSR training workshop at Islamabad
By Syed Wasif Javed & Rabia Baloch