Zambia Trains 213 Frontline Personnel Under New One Health Curriculum
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AFENET
Zambia has strengthened its disease surveillance and outbreak response capacity by training 213 frontline personnel under the newly adopted Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP)-Frontline One Health curriculum.
The achievement marks an important step towards building a multidisciplinary workforce capable of detecting, investigating and responding to public health threats affecting humans, animals and the environment.
Since its launch in 2015, Zambia’s FETP-Frontline has strengthened surveillance capacity at district and provincial levels. Between 2015 and 2025, the program trained 625 health workers across all 116 districts and 10 provinces. However, previous cohorts were predominantly drawn from human health, with limited participation from animal and environmental health professionals.
To address this gap, Zambia formally adopted the FETP-Frontline One Health curriculum, version 3.0, in July 2025. Through targeted recruitment, provincial training and mentorship, the program has trained 213 frontline personnel across eight regular cohorts and two special cohorts.
During field placements, trainees from different sectors reviewed surveillance systems, analysed surveillance data, conducted data quality audits and participated in outbreak investigations. These assignments translated One Health principles into practical, collaborative disease detection and response.
In June 2026, a veterinary officer participating in the program collected samples during an investigation of a suspected outbreak affecting goats in Western Province. In September 2026, trainees also conducted active case searches during an anthrax outbreak in Muchinga Province.
The eighth One Health cohort graduated on 30 September 2026 in Copperbelt Province, marking further progress in expanding Zambia’s frontline surveillance workforce.
The wider training efforts have benefited from technical and financial support from the Zambia National Public Health Institute (ZNPHI), WHO Country Office, Zambia Multisectoral Pandemic Preparedness and Response Project (ZaMPPRP), US CDC and Africa CDC.
