Highlights from the 21st FETP International Nights

Highlights from the 2022 FETP International Nights, held virtually on May 10-11, 2022:

TEPHINET and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) co-organized this year’s FETP International Nights, an event typically held during the annual Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Conference in Atlanta. Following last year’s model, this year’s FETP International Nights was held as a standalone virtual event one week after the annual EIS Conference, also held virtually. 

Attendees were welcomed to day 1 of the event by CDC’s FETP Team Lead, Dr. Seymour Williams, and TEPHINET Director, Dr. Carl Reddy. Both speakers emphasized the important opportunity that FETP International Nights provides for FETPs to showcase their work and the impact they are making every day in public health. TEPHINET Advisory Board Chair and Executive Director of the National Institute of Health (NIH) Pakistan, Professor Aamer Ikram, offered opening remarks, speaking on the importance of TEPHINET to public health workforce capacity building and stating “FETPs play a critical role in advancing global health security and protecting populations from health threats." 

As with previous years, we received an overwhelming number of high-quality abstracts with topics that ranged from COVID-19 to HIV, cholera, malaria, leishmaniasis, tobacco use, antimicrobial resistance (AMR), and more. Abstract reviewers were tasked with narrowing down more than 150 abstracts from 61 countries to identify the 24 high-quality abstracts that were presented during the first day of the conference. Poster sessions were moderated by Erika Rosetto (Resident Advisor, Mozambique Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program [FELTP]), Steven Ooi Peng Lim (Director, Singapore FETP), Priyakanta Nayak (Technical Officer, World Health Organization [WHO]), Dr. Bao-Ping Zhu (Director, CDC Office of Science Quality), and Dr. Ana de la Garza (Director, Mexico FETP). All of the accepted abstracts can be viewed in the abstract booklet, attached below. PowerPoint presentations of each of the 24 posters can also be found on the event website.

On day 2, attendees were welcomed by RADM Nancy Knight, Director for the Division of Global Health Protection (DGHP), Center for Global Health (CGH), CDC, followed by opening remarks from CDC's Acting Principal Deputy Director, Dr. Debra Houry. Both speakers highlighted the many contributions that FETPs have made to global health protection and emphasized the importance of continuing to strengthen and expand field epidemiology capacity building around the world. Dr. Houry expressed gratitude for the work of FETPs and the dedication and passion they bring to protecting populations from public health threats.

The below oral presentations were moderated by Dr. Henry Walke, Director of the CDC’s Center for Preparedness and Response (CPR).

• COVID-19 Cluster Investigation After Choir Recording at Church x: A Case-control Study, Bantul Regency, Indonesia, May 2021 (Authors: Hayati Nur [presenter], Puspitarani Fitriana, Indriani Citra, Setyo Dwi Nugroho Andri)
   
• Transmission of Coronavirus Disease 2019 Among Wedding Attendees in Karachi, Pakistan 2020: a Retrospective Cohort Study (Authors: Jamal Hamza [presenter], Asif Syed Muhammad, Baloch Hira Naz, Memon Arsalan, Ali Khan Mumtaz, Iqbal Baig Zeeshan, Malik Muhammad Wasif, Ashraf Nosheen, Ansari Jamil Ahmad, Salman Muhammad, Ikram Aamer)
   
• Excess Hospital Death During the First Year of the COVID-19 Pandemic, Bishkek, Kazakhstan, 2020 (Authors: Malisheva Marina [presenter], Dzhalimbekova Altynay, Otorbaeva Dinagul, Bumburidi Yekaterin)
   
• Status of Patients Retention Into HIV Care Following Implementation of Multi-month Scripting For Antiretrovirals In Mwanza, Tanzania, 2018–2020 (Authors: Mkonyi Emanuel [presenter], Mghamba Janneth, Kwesigabo Gideon)
   
• Has COVID-19 Pandemic Affected Routine Immunization Activities? Secondary Data Analysis, Sierra Leone, 2021 (Authors: Nyandemoh Haurace [presenter], Kamara Kassim, Saffa Gbessay, Hakizimana Leonard, Gevao Philip,Abdalla Adel, Gebru Gebrekrstos)
   
• An Outbreak of Acute Neurological Illness in Eluru, West Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh, India, 2020 (Authors: Sharma Sahil [presenter], Patel Purvi, Kulkarni Sanket, Deoshatwar Avinash, Manohar Kata, Yadav Rajesh, Tanwar Sukarma, Krishna Mohan, Dolla Joshi Roy, Jain Sudhir Kumar, Singh Sujeet Kumar, Dikid Tanzin)

We are grateful to all of the speakers, moderators, presenters, and the nearly 700 attendees who joined us for the 21st FETP International Nights to hear about the impactful work of FETPs around the globe!