Chennai doctor gets special training to help fight epidemics
7 officers from across India underwent two-year training
By : aishwarya vp vignesh
Update: 2014-09-07 03:50 GMT
Chennai: While Chennai is keeping close watch on passengers arriving from Ebola affected countries at the airport, the country could have additional expertise to rely on as the first batch of seven officers from across India who underwent two-year training in ‘Epidemic Intelligence Services’ (EIS) at the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention in the USA will be returning next month.
The Union government had entered into an agreement with the USA in 2010 for a training programme to be conducted by its Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Department of Health and Human Services, in coordination with National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Ministry of Health, India.
Dr R. Mohan Kumar from Chennai, who was the only candidate from southern states to undergo the programme, says it included training in preventing a disease outbreak, identifying it at inception and in ways and means of handling an outbreak should it hit a region.
While the second batch of 15 candidates undergoing the course has no representative from Tamil Nadu,the third batch, which will begin training in October will include Dr Sri Kalpana, medical officer at the Institute of Public Health in Poonamallee.
Meanwhile, director of public health Dr K Kulandaisamy says it is important for the country to adopt a system to monitor and prevent the outbreak and spread of epidemics as global travel exposes many people to a wide range of health conditions today. “Most of the new diseases spread globally through passengers. And so it is important to identify those coming from or returning to epidemic affected countries and keep them under medical observation,” he stresses.