Vanuatu and Timor-Leste Join Papua New Guinea’s Intermediate Field Epidemiology Training Program
Written by Megge Miller Solomon Islands Project Lead at Field Epi in Action - March 26, 2024
Four fellows from Vanuatu and Timor-Leste have recently graduated from Papua New Guinea’s Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETPNG). The fellows were going to join Cohort 9 of FETPNG, however, unforeseen logistical difficulties in PNG prevented Cohort 9 from commencing in 2023. Instead, the Field Epidemiology in Action (FEiA) team, with support from Menzies School of Health Research and Burnet Institute, conducted the training with the four fellows from May 2023 to February 2024.
About FETPNG
FETPNG is an intermediate-level program delivered over five phases as outlined in the figure below. Phases 1, 3 and 5 are intensive workshops while Phases 2 and 4 are mentored on-the-job projects (i.e. the field work). Phase 2 is a field project focused on collecting evidence to better understand a public health problem. Fellows use the results of their field project to then design an intervention aimed at addressing the problem. Phase 4 is the implementation of the intervention in the fellows’ workplaces. The public health interventions enable fellows to contribute in real-time, to meaningful improvements to their health system.
The fellows chosen intervention projects
The two ni-Vanuatu fellows were Ms Aleesha Kalulu and Ms Leiwia Dick. Aleesha is the Senior Vaccine Safety Surveillance Officer at the Ministry of Health’s Surveillance Unit and her intervention was vaccine preventable disease (VPD) surveillance training for sentinel site staff in Shefa Province, Vanuatu. Leiwia is a Laboratory Officer at the Vila Central Hospital Laboratory, and her intervention examined the implementation of hepatitis B screening test at health facilities, Efate, Vanuatu.
The fellows from Timor-Leste were Dr Ari Jayanti Pereira Tilman and Dr Filipe de Neri Machado. Dr Ari is the Director of the National Health Laboratory of the National Institute of Public Health and her intervention focussed on reducing contamination of blood culture specimens in the Paediatric Department of a hospital in, Dili, Timor-Leste. Dr Neri is the National Director of Public Health, National Institute of Public Health and his series of interventions aimed at decreasing dengue cases in Dili, Timor-Leste.
Fellows present their intervention findings at Graduation
The graduation ceremony was held on Thursday 15th February 2024, with special guests attending in person and online via a Zoom link. Opening remarks were provided by Professor David Durrheim (Director of Health Protection, Hunter New England Local Health District and University of Newcastle), Mr Steve Wheatley (Executive Officer, CIFAL Newcastle, University of Newcastle) and Mr Barry Ropa (Director of FETPNG, National Department of Health, Papua New Guinea).
The fellows presented the findings from their public health interventions. The certificates of completion were given to each of the fellows by Professor Durrheim and Mr Wheatley.
The fellows reflected on their experience of training in FETPNG:
Other fellows and mentors were great to work with and easy to learn from. There was a lot of exchange of valuable knowledge and experience.
My proudest moment was completing my project…[to] bring about positive impact in the community.
The graduates now join the community of over 100 graduates from the field epidemiology training programs in PNG and Solomon Islands, supported by the FEiA team. We look forward to seeing what the graduates from Timor-Leste and Vanuatu will achieve in the future.
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