Acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) surveillance system in Lebanon: a teaching case-study
Hala Abou Naja, Nada Ghosn
Corresponding author: Hala Abou Naja, Epidemiological Surveillance Program at the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health, Lebanon 
Received: 02 Jul 2020 - Accepted: 20 Jul 2020 - Published: 04 Aug 2020
Domain: Infectious diseases epidemiology
Keywords: Acute Flaccid Paralysis, polio, surveillance, virus importation, polio preparedness plan
This article is published as part of the supplement Teaching case-studies in Field Epidemiology with a focus on the Eastern Mediterranean Region, commissioned by The Eastern Mediterranean Public Health Network (EMPHNET).
©Hala Abou Naja et al. Pan African Medical Journal (ISSN: 1937-8688). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Cite this article: Hala Abou Naja et al. Acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) surveillance system in Lebanon: a teaching case-study. Pan African Medical Journal. 2020;36(1):7. [doi: 10.11604/pamj.supp.2020.36.1.24759]
Available online at: https://www.panafrican-med-journal.com/content/series/36/1/7/full
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Acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) surveillance system in Lebanon: a teaching case-study
Acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) surveillance system in Lebanon: a teaching case-study
Hala Abou Naja1,&, Nada Ghosn1
&Corresponding author
Lebanon has been declared polio-free since 2002. In 2003, following an imported polio case, national campaigns succeeded to contain the virus with no further cases. Since 2013, the risk of poliovirus importation became concrete. Several risk factors linked to the Syrian crisis were illustrated including wild poliovirus type 1 outbreak in Syria in 2013-2014, huge Syrian population influx into Lebanon due to insecurity, and circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) outbreak in Syria in 2017. Hence, there is continuous need to enhance Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) surveillance to timely detect any imported poliovirus for the implementation of needed response. The goal of the case study is to build the capacity of Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) residents and other health professionals in the area of AFP reporting and prepare health care staff to any polio importation into the country. This case study is can be administered in 2-3 hours.
General instructions: this case study should be used as adjunct training material for novice epidemiology trainees to reinforce the concepts taught in prior lectures. The case study is ideally taught by a facilitator in groups of about 20 participants. Participants are to take turns reading the case study, usually a paragraph per student. The facilitator guides the discussion on possible responses to questions. The facilitator may make use of flip charts to illustrate certain points. Additional instructor´s notes for facilitation are coupled with each question in the instructor´s guide to aid facilitation.
Audience: this case study was developed for health care staff at hospital setting. These participants are commonly health care workers working in the county departments of health whose background may be as medical doctors, nurses, environmental health officers or laboratory scientists who work in public health-related fields and infection control personnel.
Prerequisites: before using this case study, participants should have received lectures on disease surveillance (polio/AFP surveillance).
Materials needed: Flash drive, flip charts, markers, computers with MS Excel.
Level of training and associated public health activity: Novice - Enhancing surveillance
Time required: 2-3 hours
Language: English
- Download the case study student guide
- Request the case study facilitator guide
The authors declare no competing interests.
We wish to acknowledge the Eastern Mediterranean Public Health Network (EMPHNET) for their support to develop this case study. I wish to acknowledge as well Mrs. Zeina Farah for peer-reviewing this case study.
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