Africa CDC Pathogen Surveillance Training Curriculum

NGS Academy for the Africa CDC PGI 

Pathogen Surveillance Training Curriculum: An Overview

Introduction 

The curriculum aims to provide a recommended set of courses with topic areas and indicative content for implementing pathogen surveillance and applied genomic epidemiology training for public health. Training implemented using the curriculum should create a foundation for African scientists to implement pathogen surveillance, and to effectively analyse and interpret the data to inform policy, while including essential elements such as ethical, legal, and social implications of the work. Combining theory and functional practice, the training curriculum aims to equip the trainees with: (1) the ability to navigate a range of wet-lab and bioinformatic workflows and (2) tools to effectively strengthen decision-making in the response to emerging pathogens or drug resistance. The full curriculum includes foundational modules, as well as modules on applied topics such as bacterial, viral, parasitic, and malaria pathogen surveillance, targeted to specific job descriptions in public health laboratories. This enables trainees to obtain an overview of the different topics relevant to them in an organised and structured manner. 



SARS-CoV-2 Bioinformatics Training Course

Course Overview: 

The SARS-CoV-2 Bioinformatics online training course is a follow-up to our SARS-CoV-2 NGS training in June. The focus for this new set of modules is more advanced bioinformatics analysis, data curation and dissemination of findings from SARS-CoV-2 NGS data. 

The content has been divided into 4 different modules. Virtual sessions generally include recorded videos and live online presentations followed by live Q&A sessions with trainers on Zoom. Where relevant, participants complete practical exercises and submit assignments and quizzes for assessment.

SARS-CoV-2 NGS Training June-July 2021

Introduction 

The aim of this online course is to provide virtual training for personnel at African institutions involved in SARS-CoV-2 sequencing for surveillance. It is primarily aimed at staff who will be preparing samples, doing the sequencing, and running basic data analysis. The content has been divided into 5 different modules, some of which are independent, while others form recommended prerequisites for the next module.

The content provides theoretical knowledge on the steps required for the workflow from sample selection to analysis, to prepare participants for more practical laboratory training when this is feasible. Virtual sessions generally include videos or live online presentations followed by live Q&A sessions with trainers. Where relevant, participants complete practical exercises and submit assignments and quizzes for assessment.

SARS-CoV-2 NGS

Introduction

The aim of this online course is to provide virtual training for personnel at African institutions involved in SARS-CoV-2 sequencing for surveillance. It is primarily aimed at staff who will be preparing samples, doing the sequencing, and running basic data analysis. The content has been divided into 7 different modules, some of which are independent, while others form recommended prerequisites for the next module.

The content provides theoretical knowledge on the steps required for the workflow from sample selection to analysis, to prepare participants for more practical laboratory training when this is feasible. Virtual sessions generally include pre-recorded videos and online presentations followed by live Q&A sessions with trainers. Where relevant, participants complete practical exercises and submit assignments and quizzes for assessment.

Next Generation Sequencing