Design And Implementation of Field Epidemiology Trainings for Zoonotic Diseases

Emerging and re-emerging diseases pose a great threat to the global economy and public health. In 2016, Taiwan Centers for Disease Control used the Joint External Evaluation Tool proposed by the World Health Organization to evaluate our capacities in maintaining health security, and it was found that the public health workforce, as well as the veterinary or animal health workforce, were still insufficient. According to the target set by the Global Health Security Agenda Workforce Development Action Package, the five-year target of workforce development in Taiwan is set at 118 field epidemiologists and 12 trained veterinarians. This article summarizes several training activities for field epidemiology and zoonotic diseases that have been implemented since 2017, including field epidemiology training for veterinarians, zoonosis workshop, case study writing workshop, and veterinary epidemiology training. The project aims to increase the capacity of field epidemiologists for both human and animal health in Taiwan, in the hopes that an inter-departmental team for responding to zoonoses outbreaks could be established based on the "One Health" approach.