National Institute for Communicable Diseases

Outbreak Investigation and Response (Epidemiology Track) Course description Investigation and management of outbreaks is one of the key responsibilities of communicable disease control coordinators in South Africa. To strengthen outbreak investigation, this course aims to develop skills in Field Epidemiology, which focuses on early detection of outbreaks and implementation of control measures in the field.
The course includes a combination of lectures, applied exercises, and outbreak scenarios. There is also a field project under the supervision of a subject matter expert to be presented at a follow-up session. The field project allows participants to transfer learning into the workplace and also provide service to the institution that they represent. The epidemiology and laboratory tracks of the Outbreak Investigation and Management course runs in parallel with several joint sessions. This facilitates an effective communication network between laboratory personnel, communicable disease control coordinators and the NICD.

Course goals Upon completion of the course, the participant will be able to: Enhance existing skills in conducting and reporting an outbreak Manage and analyze outbreak data using software Confidently use Epi-Info 2000 to create questionnaires, enter, manage, analyze and interpret data for action Identify hypotheses as to the source of the outbreak Identify the appropriate analytic study design to test these hypotheses as well as analyze and interpret the analytical data Interpret laboratory results in the outbreak context Know the key elements required for documenting an outbreak and how these may be used to prepare concise reports Establish a system of regular communication between laboratory personnel and the Department of Health Target audience Participants of this course should currently be responsible for investigating and managing outbreaks on a provincial level.