US Supports Strengthening of Nigeria’s Public Health Emergency Response
Segun James
The United States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (US-CDC) and the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) collaborated to deliver a two-week intermediate-level professional certification training for Public Health Emergency Management Professional Certification Programme (PHEM PC).
The PHEM PC programme graduated its second cohort of 25 state epidemiologists at a ceremony last weekend.
Speaking at the graduation, US Consul-General, Will Stevens, underscored the US Government’s commitment and prioritisation of Public Health Emergency Management as Nigeria work towards achieving Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA) 2024 targets and meeting International Health Regulations (IHR) requirements by strengthening workforce development, disease surveillance, emergency response, and laboratory capacity.
The Consul-General highlighted the strategic partnership between the US and Nigeria to strengthen health security and respond to disease threats.
He said: “The US Government is committed to promoting the health and wellbeing of Nigerians through initiatives and training that increase disease prevention, detection, and response.”
In her remarks, US-CDC Nigeria Country Director, Dr. Mary Boyd, said: “The devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic illustrates now more than ever the importance of ensuring public health systems can adequately detect, prevent, respond to, and recover from health emergencies, particularly those whose scale, timing, or unpredictability threatens to overwhelm routine capabilities.”
The PHEM PC programme is part of the US Government’s efforts to support pandemic preparedness in Nigeria and globally. It provides emergency managers, incident managers, state epidemiologists, first responders, watch managers, and other public health experts with specialised training in public health emergency management and operations and other critical preparedness and response skills, including crisis and emergency risk communication.
CDC Nigeria is the country office of the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) with a vision of public health excellence for healthy Nigerians. The office supports the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Health, its department, agencies, state Ministries of Health, and several key partners in developing, implementing, and evaluating disease response efforts and programmes that contribute to strengthened public health infrastructure in Nigeria.
