Dr Nazrul Islam, Dr Afzal Hossain, Dr Mozaffar Gani Osman

Government Representatives from Bangladesh

The Farm Animal and Veterinary Public Health group hosted three veterinarians from the Government of Bangladesh for a one month period of training in epidemiology methods. They arrived in Sydney from Dhaka on Saturday October 11. They represent three-quarters of a recently formed Epidemiology Unit, within the Department of Livestock Services, Dhaka.

Their travel and training was sponsored by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, as part of FAO’s program to control Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza H5N1. Bangladesh has experienced 289 outbreaks of H5N1 disease since February 2007.

This training aims to strengthen the National Epidemiological capacity of Bangladesh in the area of animal health, particularly in efforts to control transboundary disease incursions, such as Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza. A secondary objective of this training is to establish and maintain a continuing education linkage in veterinary epidemiology and public health between The University of Sydney, the Food and Agriculture Organization, and the Government of Bangladesh. This will enhance epidemiologic capacity.

The training program focused on an understanding of epidemiological principles and application to the design of studies and analysis of results. The visitors arrived with data that will be used as a teaching example. The training was delivered by Michael Ward, Navneet Dhand and Jenny-Ann Toribio.
Whilst here, Drs Nazrul, Afzal and Mozaffar visited some tourist spots in Sydney and the Blue Mountains.