Newcastle expertise attracts $7.5m Australian Government grant to help boost Pacific region’s health
A University of Newcastle and Hunter New England Local Health District partnership working to strengthen field epidemiology capacity, disease surveillance and outbreak response in the Pacific for the past 10 years has been awarded $7.5m in Australian Government funding to continue their important work supporting public health training programs in the region.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Senator Penny Wong and Minister for International Development and the Pacific, the Hon Pat Conroy, have announced Australia will boost its support for a healthy Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Fiji and Vanuatu with a new package to help address major health challenges.
The $620m Partnerships for a Healthy Region initiative, which supports partner countries in the Pacific and Southeast Asia to build resilient and equitable health systems, has awarded $7.5m to the University of Newcastle and Hunter New England Field Epidemiology in Action (FE iA) team over four years.
FEiA Coordinator, Hunter New England Population Health epidemiologist and University of Newcastle Conjoint Fellow Mr James Flint, said the multidisciplinary team included epidemiologists, physicians and researchers with a passion for international development and public health.
“Our team of experts from Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and Australia - including the University of Newcastle and Hunter New England Local Health District - are committed to strengthening health systems in the Pacific region and improving health through field epidemiology.
“We use evidence-based decision making, tailor made for the Pacific context with the objective of training and supporting public health professionals, including field epidemiologists, to anticipate, prevent, detect, and control public health threats,” he said.
“This funding will support us to continue building and delivering high impact, sustainable field epidemiology programs to create a public health workforce that keeps the communities in Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Fiji and Vanuatu safe and healthy. We are also working with Timor-Leste as they establish their national field epidemiology training program.”
Led by Conjoint Professor and Hunter New England Health’s Director of Health Protection Population Health, David Durrheim, the team includes Ms Rachel Hammersley-Mather, Dr Megge Miller, Dr Tambri Housen and Mr James Flint of the School of Medicine and Public Health, as well as Professor Roberta Ryan of the University’s Institute for Regional Futures.
The project, ‘Field Epidemiology in Action’ is awarded the grant through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Partnerships for a Healthy Region initiative.
* HMRI is a partnership between the University of Newcastle, Hunter New England Health and the community.
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- Email: carmen.swadling@newcastle.edu.au
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