Sunday Times 2
Dengue management training programme
View(s):The second training programme in dengue management for foreign clinicians was held from November 25 to December 1 in Sri Lanka.
This seven-day Regional Dengue Clinical Management Training of Trainer (ToT) Programme was held for 13 doctors and nurses from Bhutan and Myanmar. It was organised collaboratively by the National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID), the National Dengue Control Unit (NDCU) and the Sri Lanka Medical Association (SLMA) and facilitated and supported by the World Health Organization South East Asia (WHO SEARO) Office and Country Office, Sri Lanka.
The objective is to elevate the NIID and Sri Lanka as a regional hub in capacity building for dengue management
Explaining that under the first programme, Bangladeshi physicians and nurses were trained in July, a spokesperson said that the objective is to elevate the NIID and Sri Lanka as a regional hub in capacity building for dengue management. It is hoped that the NIID’s Centre for Research and Training (CeRT) would be accredited as a WHO Collaborating Centre for the Clinical Management of Dengue.
The training programme projects how Sri Lanka’s low cost, yet highly effective model in dengue clinical management has produced the lowest Case Fatality Rates (CFR) or dengue deaths in the region, despite the country being dengue endemic.
During the week-long intensive programmeg, trainees underwent ward classes, scenario-based learning, case studies, practical demonstrations, field work and interactive group work on dengue clinical management. It included fluid management; critical phase monitoring; bedside ultrasonography; dengue monitoring charts; complications in dengue; as well as prevention, preparedness, mitigation and response to dengue outbreaks and soft skills development such as risk communication during a surge of dengue cases.
In 2022 and 2023, the NIID trained 487 (198 medical officers and 289 nursing officers) and 456 (242 medical officers and 214 nursing officers) local personnel.