Description:
Since the last issue, there have been two developments of great significance to the NCDC Smallpox Eradication Program. In July 1967, the first Annual Regional Meeting of the West African Smallpox Eradication/Measles Control Program occurred in Accra, Ghana. The NCDC field staff in Africa, as well as members of the headquarters staff, met at the Continental Hotel, Accra, for one week of technical and administrative discussions. During the first two days reports were presented from each country contingent on the progress of the regional campaigns. Following this, specific operational aspects were discussed in seminar fashion introduced by illustrative presentations by country representatives; these included assessment, surveillance, health education, field operations, epidemic control, etc. A highlight of the conference was the seminar on border control activities representing the distilled thoughts of assignees to contiguous countries who, in small group discussions, defined patterns of migratory movement, potentials for reaching migratory groups, and the general philosophy of border management in a regional program.
A critique committee appointed by Dr. George I. Lythcott, Chief, Regional Office, Smallpox Eradication/Measles Control Program, Lagos, Nigeria (who chaired most of the general sessions) examined the meeting in depth and presented a highly favorable report to the last session of the assembled group. This meeting is expected to be an annual event in Africa; and it is hoped that in the future national counterparts will be able to attend.
Another major event has been the Second Smallpox Eradication Program Orientation and Training Course now being conducted at headquarters for assignees to the West African Smallpox Eradication/Measles Control Program. Four medical officers and three operations officers assigned this year to Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea have been in Atlanta since July 1. All attended the Epidemic Intelligence Service Course in epidemiology and biostatistics July 5-August 4 as guests of the Epidemiology Program. Since August 7, they have been in the SEP Course designed to provide specific training in theoretical and practical aspects of mass smallpox eradication campaigning. In addition to the NCDC personnel, the course was attended also by Dr. Philip Adeoye, Chief, Smallpox-Measles Unit, Ministry of Health, Kaduna, Northern Nigeria; Dr. Georgji Nickolaevski, Smallpox Eradication Program, World Health Organization, Geneva; and Dr. Juan Ponce de Leon, Chief, Smallpox Eradication Consultant, Pan American Health Organization, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
This year, as last, the course director was Dr. Henry G. Gelfand, Special Assistant for Research and Evaluation, Smallpox Eradication Program, Atlanta , Georgia. In addition to the full headquarters staff, a distinguished faculty of national and international experts in communicable disease control participated in teaching the course.
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