World Health Organization (WHO) Public Health Specialist (Epidemiology) Vacancy Job Ref: VACWHO8638

The incumbent will enhance national capacity in overall disease prevention and control by collaborating on the development and implementation of national, public health Programmes and strategies on surveillance and response which may include emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. This may also serve to strengthen early detection, verification and rapid response to epidemics and other public health events of national or international concern.

The incumbent will perform all, or part of the following, and other related responsibilities as required by the needs of the office.

• Advance coordination with all technical focal points at regional and headquarters levels, under the guidance of the head of the WHO country office.
• Provide authoritative advice to national public health authorities and lead the epidemiological work of the country office that under pins policy formulation. Support relevant teams on building core capacities for surveillance, early detection, verification and rapid response to epidemics and other public health events of international concern, as required in the International Health Regulations (IHR) 2005.
• Ensure that the WHO Country Office has access to all relevant existing country-specific health-related data. This includes national and subnational datasets, such as demographics of populations affected by specific diseases (relevant age, gender, etc.) and time trends. Analyze such data sets to provide additional insights on the country’s health context and epidemiological situation.
• Serve as focal person for all internal and external requests related to country-specific data. As needed, ensure government agreement for the use and dissemination of such data.
• Assist the government and relevant institutions on the enhancement of national capacities in epidemic and disease-trends’ forecasting and detection systems, including epidemiology and laboratory surveillance for monitoring and evaluating the core surveillance and real-time analysis of outbreak intelligence data.
• Lead and coordinate the development of training courses for public health professionals on epidemiological surveillance, outbreak investigation, and/or the improvement of related data management.
• Oversee the WHO Office’s support to the government in conducting field investigations of public health events. when required by the specific country or health situation.
• Collaborate with Health Emergency teams to promote WHO’s position and successfully influence national health authorities to develop infection prevention and control programmes in health care facilities, including (where and when required) focusing on preparedness and response to epidemics and pandemics.
• Participate, as needed, in risk assessments for unusual health events.
• Collaborate with relevant authorities on the development and maintenance of a national system or comprehensive data collection and trend analysis of public health events.
• Play a lead role in the analysis, interpretation, and knowledge building of surveillance data (including virological data) through WHO and peer-reviewed publications and media.
• Encourage collaboration and develop innovative advocacy initiatives and project proposals for joint action and resource mobilization to augment national, operational responses to public health events.
• Act as the main liaison between government and WHO (all levels) on country-specific data gathering and dissemination of WHO-generated data and data analysis.
• Perform other activities as required by WHO Representative.

Essential: Advanced university degree (Master’s level) in epidemiology, public health, medical or other studies in a field directly related to the position.

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