US-CDC, the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), and Georgetown University collaborated to deliver the professional certification training.
The United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention (US-CDC) has trained about 40 Nigerian public health experts on emergency preparedness and response.
US-CDC, the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), and Georgetown University collaborated to deliver the professional certification training.
Speaking on Friday at the closing and graduation ceremony of the two-week capacity-building exercise in Lagos, U.S. Consul General, Claire Pierangelo, underscored the US government’s commitment to the public health emergency management.
The Consul General highlighted the strategic partnership between the US and Nigeria in strengthening health security and response to disease threats.
She said, “Over the last 14 days, our distinguished participants have gone through rigorous training leading to certification. The two-week course focused on core principles of an Incident Management System (IMS) as an efficient coordination mechanism for responding to small disease outbreaks as well as more significant public health emergencies like the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“Emergency Management is one of the 11 capacity building prioritized by the USG in its support of Nigeria. Our primary goal is to continue supporting Nigeria to achieve the Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) 2024 targets and the International Health Regulations (IHR) requirements by strengthening workforce development, surveillance, emergency response, and laboratory capacity, among other areas.
“Today's event highlights our continued strategic partnership with Nigeria to support health security and response to disease threats. In the recent past, the USG had funded the participation of 4 Nigerians to attend the advanced Public Health Emergency Management (PHEM) Fellowship program at CDC headquarters in Atlanta.
“Even as we continue to respond to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in our countries and many parts of the world, the need for all countries to continuously improve their response capacities cannot be overemphasized. We believe the PHEM professional certification program is one such training initiative that will adequately position Nigeria for epidemic and pandemic response now and into the future.
“Finally, following lessons learned from this pilot implementation, USG will continue to support NCDC to advance Public Health Emergency Management interventions in Nigeria at all levels. Let me reiterate that we remain committed and stand ready to continue our partnership with Nigeria in its response to public health disease threats and adopt strategies that will increase disease prevention, detection, and response. We are committed to promoting the health and wellbeing of Nigerians.”