Epidemiologist

Provide technical support and assist in the development of surveys and monitoring/surveillance systems for detection, verification and response to public health incidents. Support outbreak investigation, data analysis, and capacity building for surveillance and response at district and health facility levels in Libya.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical support and assist in the development of surveys and monitoring/surveillance systems for detection, verification and response to public health incidents at district and health facility levels.
• Collate and verify data on reported outbreaks or rumors from multiple sources, conduct retrospective analysis of reported incidents to determine trends and distribution patterns.
• Brief the team on data quality improvement, use of data for monitoring trends, ALERT and ACTION thresholds, and methodologies for Data Quality Audit at district and health facility level.
• Provide technical assistance for establishment and functionality of Rapid Response Teams and Public Health Management Committees for potential hazards at district level.
• Contribute to building core surveillance, alert and response national capacities in accordance with IHR 2005 requirements; provide trainings and support supervision and on-the-job training at health facility level.
• Support development of early warning systems for epidemic and pandemic-prone diseases and conduct field investigations.
• Provide technical support for vulnerability assessment, risk mapping and development of preparedness/contingency plans at district level.
• Maintain incident management system database of reported outbreaks and public health incidents at district level and document verification and response processes.
• Facilitate district surveillance monthly review meetings including tracking of surveillance performance indicators.
• Monitor and evaluate implementation of planned surveillance activities and alert and response capacities in compliance with IHR 2005.
• Prepare and disseminate disease outbreak news, technical documents, updates and assessments to key decision-makers and national health authorities using standard tools and templates.
• Perform any other incident-specific related duties as required by the functional supervisor.

Requirements

• First university degree in epidemiology, statistics, database management or public health from an accredited/recognized institute.
• An advanced university degree in a health-related field or quantitative epidemiology, specialized training in communicable diseases (desirable).
• At least five years related experience, at the national and international levels, in implementation of public health surveillance, outbreak investigation and response.
• Previous experience in implementation of Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) is a requirement.
• Experience in developing countries (desirable).
• Previous experience working in collaboration with multiple actors in public health surveillance is desirable.
• Prior humanitarian working experience at field level with WHO/UN, health cluster partners, recognized humanitarian organization or with an international nongovernmental organization with expertise in disaster and outbreak response (desirable).
• Sound knowledge and skills in database management and statistical analysis, secondary data review, survey designing and implementation, monitoring and evaluation systems design or use, and public health information management.
• Proven ability to multitask across various planning and implementation processes within a highly demanding environment.
• Demonstrated knowledge, competency and professional skills on the public health aspects of infectious disease control, epidemic and pandemic preparedness and response with particular attention to application of an all hazard approach in the context of the International Health Regulations and the use of event based and indicator based surveillance, as well as descriptive epidemiology and principles of public health in communicable disease surveillance and response.
• Expert knowledge of English.
• Expert knowledge of Arabic.

Skills

• Epidemiology
• Public Health Surveillance
• Outbreak Investigation
• Outbreak Response
• Integrated Disease Surveillance
• Database Management
• Statistical Analysis
• Survey Design
• Monitoring and Evaluation
• Public Health Information Systems
• Infectious Disease Control
• Epidemic Preparedness
• Event-based Surveillance
• Indicator-based Surveillance
• Descriptive Epidemiology
• International Health Regulations
• Capacity Building
• Data Analysis

Languages

English, Arabic