CHENNAI: A School of Public Health to provide field epidemiology training will soon be established in Chennai, Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) Director-General N.K. Ganguly said here on Monday.

While the Planning Commission had, in principle, approved the setting up of one centre each in Chennai and Delhi, the modalities were yet to be worked out.

When it comes up, probably in five years' time, the School will boast of state-of-the-art laboratory and communication facilities, and will work in partnership with the International School of Public Health, based in Boston, he said.

Dr. Ganguly said it would serve as a very good resource centre on public health issues, not only for the different States, but also for countries.

Addressing the media after the inaugural function of the third South East Asia and Western Pacific bi-regional Training Programmes in Public Health Interventions Network (TEPHINET) scientific conference, Dr. Ganguly stressed the need for training field-level public health professionals consistent with national health needs and priorities.

"If we can seed the country with Field Epidemiology Training Programme Graduates (FETPs), then it will be possible to reach intervention more quickly to the affected areas," he said, adding that 28 countries were involved in conducting FETPs.

Throughout the 1990s there had been incidents that required intervention by public health experts, either at the national or international level. Flu, SARS, plague outbreaks and the public health ramifications of national disasters had proved the need for more field-level functionaries, he said.

The programme in India received a lot of inputs and support from international agencies to shape the curriculum and there was a healthy exchange of ideas and experiences.

TEPHINET chairman Roberto Flores said it was established to strengthen international public health capacity through initiating, supporting and networking field based training programmes. This, it was hoped, would enhance competencies in applied epidemiology and public health interventions.

The meeting, attended by 200 field epidemiologists from 14 countries in the South East Asia and Western Pacific region, will examine issues relating to emerging pandemics, disaster management and epidemic preparedness, learning resources in epidemiology training and communicating results effectively.

Hosted in Chennai by the National Institute of Epidemiology (NIE), the symposium will conclude with training of the trainers' programme in which representatives from 10 nations will participate, according to NIE Director in Chennai M.D. Gupte.

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