ACHIEVEMENTS

SAFETP trainees have made significant contributions in investigating and responding to numerous disease outbreaks and priority health conditions. Selected examples of significant contributions include: outbreaks of Rift Valley fever from 2008 to 2011 that led to greater collaborations with the veterinary and animal health sector, an outbreak of multi-drug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa in a hospital in Cape Town in 2010, a diarrheal disease outbreak investigation in Free State that led to major improvements in the water treatment system, and the identification of the emergence of multi-drug resistant Candida auris fungal infections which led to the development of clinical and diagnostic guidelines for detection and investigation of future outbreaks, Listeriosis outbreak in 2017 which led to the inclusion of Listeriosis in category 1 Notifiable Medical Conditions list in South Africa.

In addition, SAFETP trainees have also assisted in responding to outbreaks in other African countries in the region. Selected examples of these include: an outbreak of typhoid in Zimbabwe from 2011 to 2012, which highlighted the role of contaminated boreholes in continued transmission, an outbreak of diarrheal illness in Swaziland in 2014, and an investigation of a cluster of hydrocephalus cases in Lesotho in 2017. Residents have also completed analytic research studies on the determinants of loss to follow-up among HIV patients in South Africa on anti-retroviral treatment enrolled in a pharmacovigilance cohort study from 2004 to 2012. The results helped bolster the strategy of community-based adherence support programs and integrated patient care that have been implemented by the South African HIV/AIDS treatment program. Residents also conducted analyses identifying risk factors for tuberculosis smear non-conversion in Western Cape Province from 2007 to 2013, helping health providers better target at-risk patients.

SAFETP trainees and graduates have also played a significant role in strengthening public health surveillance programs within the country. The trainees have contributed to the design, implementation, and evaluation of various surveillance systems at all levels of the health system within the country. In 2015, a team of six SAFETP residents and seven alumni evaluated the National Notifiable Medical Conditions (NMC) surveillance system in the country. The findings from the evaluation have informed the re-engineering of the entire NMC surveillance system for South Africa.

In 2018, the SAFETP received accreditation from the Training Programs in Epidemiology and Public Health Interventions Network (TEPHINET), and the SAFETP Alumni Association was established. To date, the programme has more than 140 graduates at the advanced tier, over 50 graduates at the Intermediate tier, and has trained more than 700 health professionals at the Frontline tier. The graduates are employed in various sectors, including the public sector or the Ministry of Health, private sector, public health institutes, Africa CDC, US CDC (in-country office), other national FETPs, WHO, etc. SAFETP has assisted Lesotho and Eswatini in establishing FETP-Frontline programmes, and has supported Malawi and Zambia in launching FETP-Intermediate programmes. Currently, the programme has 18 residents. Several abstracts—more than 400—have been accepted and presented at major local and international scientific conferences, including PHASA, AFENET, TEPHINET, and EIS.