YEREVAN—The University of California, Los Angeles Fielding School of Public Health and the American University of Armenia Turpanjian College of Health Sciences on December 14 hosted their second Community of Practice event titled “Emerging Diseases and Existing Tools.” Over 40 specialists representing the public health community in Armenia participated in the webinar.
Community of Practice is an innovative and interactive platform providing a space for participants to receive ongoing continuing education and support, practice their skills, and engage in open and up-to-the-minute discussions. This initiative is part of UCLA and AUA’s collaboration to advance public health for Armenia through various programs and services.
The webinar featured Shira Shafir, Ph.D., MPH, Infectious Disease Epidemiologist and Associate Professor in the Departments of Community Health Sciences and Epidemiology at UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health.
Throughout her presentation, Dr. Shafir provided a general overview of communicable diseases and control measures, highlighting the importance of public health tools in preventing and controlling their spread. Dr. Shafir addressed a breadth of evidence-based control measures that target the host, the infectious agent, the environment, and the route of transmission. She underscored the importance of many public health tools such as active immunization, chemoprophylaxis and chemotherapy, isolation and quarantine, and behavior change, that allow individuals and communities to protect themselves. While summarizing the evidence of what we know to be effective for the prevention and control of infectious diseases, she emphasized the importance of rapidly recognizing the route of transmission of the infection and tailoring those control measures accordingly. In addition, she thoroughly discussed airborne, droplet, and contact transmission precaution measures.
Dr. Shafir concluded her presentation by bringing the attention of the audience to the Swiss Cheese model, according to which every intervention (layer/slice) has imperfections (holes), changing in size, number, and position, depending on the burden of the virus, how the interventions are carried out, and the extent of compliance. Thus, emphasizing that multiple layers (interventions) improve the success of infection prevention and control.
This Community of Practice event provided insight into emerging diseases and control measures, relating directly to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, while addressing the role and importance of established public health measures in preventing future infectious disease outbreaks and ensuring public health resilience. The UCLA and AUA teams will continue to work together to host Community of Practice events and provide a brave space for professionals to learn, collaborate, and talk about their experiences.
The UCLA and AUA teams are committed to continuing ongoing training and scaling up the program in an effort to help Armenia address not only the COVID-19 pandemic, but also to prepare the country for a resilient future. This initiative is one of the many projects under the umbrella of the Promise Armenian Institute at UCLA, which aims to address the needs of Armenia and ensure the health and safety of the population.
