Diploma Program on Infectious Disease Surveillance – Afghanistan

Background

Communicable diseases account for more than 60% of all outpatient visits and more than half of all deaths in Afghanistan. The country has a well-established communicable disease surveillance and response system for reduction in morbidity and mortality associated with these diseases, implementation of International Health Regulations and prevention of global spread of public health emergencies of international concern. While the surveillance system of Afghanistan is well-equipped with the infrastructure and logistics to handle outbreaks and epidemics, there was a felt need from the Ministry of Public Health for increased knowledge and skills of their staff members in areas related to infectious disease epidemiology, surveillance and outbreak investigation and data analyses. As a response to this need, IIPH Delhi is conducting a diploma program for the healthcare staff of the Disease Surveillance Department of the Ministry of Public Health which would extensively cover all the above-mentioned areas, including theoretical and practical knowledge.

Program delivery

This diploma program has been designed as a yearlong program, focusing on the following major themes: epidemiology, biostatistics, infectious disease surveillance and outbreak investigation. The program would be delivered in a blended learning mode, i.e. through recorded online lectures and interactions, as well as multiple contact sessions in IIPH Delhi. This program would use a combination of various pedagogic techniques. The program content would be delivered using the eLearning platform at PHFI (https://cdl.phfi.org/portal/) as well as through multiple contact sessions. eLearning sessions will be conducted over a period of one year in a modular structure (one module at a time) by designated faculty members from PHFI. Students would be required to login to the portal from their personal computers/laptops. A minimum bandwidth of 512 kbps and a headset is necessary for a student to access the online sessions. Additionally, during the course of the year-long program, there would be four face-to-face sessions between the students and the faculty members.

Examinations

At the end of each module, there would be one graded assignment for each student to submit individually within a stipulated time period. The marks allotted to these assignments would carry 50% of the weight of the total marks obtained by the individual student for the diploma. After the completion of all the modular assignments, a final examination would be conducted for each student at the end of the year. A student would be able to appear for the final examination only after having completed all the individual module-ending assignments. The marks obtained in the final examination would carry a weightage of 50% of the total marks. Each student who successfully completes this diploma program with at least 50% marks of the total (including modular assignments and final examination) would be awarded a diploma by IIPH Delhi at the end of the program tenure.