Written by Endang Wulandari - NPO (Epidemiologist)
Zoonoses, diseases or infections that are naturally transmissible from vertebrate animals to humans, constitute an important public health problem. There are six priority zoonoses in Indonesia: zoonotic influenza (avian and swine influenza), zoonotic coronavirus (COVID-19, MERS-CoV), rabies, anthrax, zoonotic tuberculosis and leptospirosis.
To mitigate these zoonoses, its prevention and control needs multisectoral collaboration and a strong, mulitidisciplinary workforce. Following the development of curricula and training modules for zoonoses prevention and control with a One Health approach in 2021, WHO and FAO supported the Ministry of Health (MoH), to collaborate with Ministry of Agriculture (MoA), Ministry of Environment and Forestry (MoEF) and University of Gadjah Mada to conduct a Training of Trainers (ToT) on the subject.
“The ToT improves the capacity of participants and strengthens the collaboration among human, animal and wildlife sectors for zoonosis prevention and control,” said dr Endang Widuri Wulandari, Epidemiologist of WHO Indonesia.
Funded by USAID, the training consisted of virtual sessions on 13-18 June 2022, followed by offline sessions on 20-25 June 2022. Three additional ToTs will be conducted in July-August 2022 to cover a total of 30 provinces.
30 participants from human health, animal health and environmental and forestry sectors from six provinces attended the ToT. The training covered the epidemiology of zoonoses, zoonoses prevention and control in public health, animal health and environmental sectors, and the One Health concept. Participants also discussed joint outbreak field investigation, joint risk assessment, risk communication, and the development of an activity plan to strengthen the One Health system. In addition, the training equipped participants with the skills to be competent trainers.
Combined adult learning methodology through interactive lectures, group exercises, meta cards and discussions actively engaged the participants throughout the programme.
An outbreak field investigation exercise was carried out to help participants to practically apply the training material in the field and to enhance multisectoral collaboration. It also aimed to improve the knowledge and skills of participants to design and facilitate outbreak field exercises.
“This training improves collaboration among human, animal and wildlife sectors and improves my knowledge and skills as a trainer. Its field exercise is also tailored to our respective province context. Cascaded roll-out trainings to subnational levels will help us improve zoonosis control,” said Lalu Madhan, field epidemiologist of West Nusa Tenggara’s Province Health Office who participated in the training.
At the end of the training, participants identified follow-up actions to implement One Health within their respective provinces. These include advocacy to strengthen One Health for zoonoses prevention and control that involves multiple sectors; advocacy for allocation of sufficient funding to roll-out cascading training to district level; sharing the training materials with other colleagues; continuing the networking and collaboration among human, animal and wildlife, and environmental sectors within their respective provinces; and preparing and designing the roll out of the training programme in their respective provinces.
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The training was funded with the generous support of USAID.