Simulated measles outbreak trains subsequent era of public well being leaders – Schulich Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry

Days after Canada misplaced its measles elimination standing, college students within the Master of Public Health program engaged in a practical outbreak situation

By Cynthia Fazio

Days after the Pan American Health Organization confirmed Canada lost its measles elimination status, the Master of Public Health (MPH) program hosted an all-day outbreak simulation workshop led by Ava John-Baptiste, PhD, professor in epidemiology and biostatistics. 

“We were in class when our professors broke the news that Canada’s measles elimination status had ended,” mentioned MPH pupil Laura Martinez. “We were all feeling disappointed because we’ve had the elimination status for almost three decades. Losing it also means we need to take further action as public health professionals.”

Fifty-eight MPH college students have been immersed in a practical outbreak situation requiring them to make essential choices about measles case investigations and outbreak responses.

“This workshop mimics the outbreaks in Ontario. I created an artificial information set of measles circumstances that resembled the information from the outbreak in Ontario which resulted in October,” said John-Baptiste. “The college students have been tasked with analyzing case information from that outbreak and drawing conclusions from their evaluation.” 

Students have been break up into 10 groups, with every representing one of many public well being items in Southwestern Ontario. They got two hours to arrange mock shows for Public Health Ontario at a multijurisdictional outbreak investigation assembly.

Students weren’t given the subject for this workshop prematurely.  

The factor of shock and fast-paced surroundings carefully mirrored what an precise day working on this discipline would seem like.  

“I had previously worked in a government setting in Saskatchewan, and this is very indicative and aligns with how the government operates from my experience,” mentioned Martinez. “Sometimes the unexpected will come up and you need to reprioritize and pivot.” 

‘Trains us well’: Preparing for high-pressure outbreaks

The college students kicked off the morning analyzing measles surveillance information to create an epidemic curve – trying on the variety of circumstances by date to trace an outbreak – after which analyzing the form of the curves, which signifies change over time, to find out if an outbreak is abating or persevering with.  

“This workshop was really comprehensive. We’re integrating everything we learned from courses such as biostatistics, epidemiology, research and social determinants of health,” mentioned MPH pupil Sam Lam, BMSc’24. “I think this trains us well for the workforce because we’ll adapt well to high-pressure, fast-paced situations – especially in public health where an outbreak happens and you need to work with a team to provide an accurate report within a tight deadline.”   

Cheryl Currie, PhD, director of the Interfaculty Program in Public Health at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry and professor in epidemiology and biostastics, defined the aim of integrative workshops within the MPH program is to have college students take the whole lot they’ve discovered by means of this system and use it to take motion on an actual situation in the neighborhood.  

“The idea is that people learn best by doing,” she mentioned. “Not just by reading a textbook, but by applying their knowledge to real-world problems. We are making sure our students are job-ready to serve their communities.” 

John-Baptiste mentioned it’s changing into much more necessary to create simulations and equip college students with the talents to deal with measles outbreaks or different infectious brokers.  

“We seem to be at an inflection point where the harms associated with infectious disease are increasing. We had a public health success story, at least in Canada and other high-income countries, because we had been able to vanquish a lot of these illnesses,” she mentioned.  

“Through a combination of global warming, misinformation and being a victim of our success – with people having no firsthand understanding of how harmful infectious diseases have been – we now find ourselves back in a position where we are going to increasingly face harms. The decision to revoke our measles elimination status almost seems like a harbinger of that. Now, we are making sure that this next generation is ready to work on these issues.” 

Students got a number of duties to assist construct their abilities. 

Later within the simulation, groups have been requested to arrange both a qualitative investigation or a quantitative survey proposal to raised perceive the causes of vaccine hesitancy. Others created a speedy evaluation proposal with evidence-based approaches to deal with parental vaccine hesitancy, tailoring their suggestions to numerous demographics and communities. Those groups labored by means of analysis greatest practices to collect essentially the most correct and related evaluation papers with concepts for efficient, evidence-based intervention. 

For the qualitative investigation, groups got here up with concepts to encourage extra survey respondents and focus group contributors, to get a extra fulsome image of causes, issues and rationale behind vaccine hesitancy.  

One group advised inviting a public well being practitioner who spoke the language generally used within the particular neighborhood to guide the main focus teams as a means to assist break down cultural boundaries and construct belief. Gaining a greater understanding of the varied causes behind vaccine hesitancy may assist public well being stakeholders to raised plan focused and efficient interventions John-Baptiste defined. 

“Having to gather all that data in two hours and distilling the information so that it can be presented in a way that the public can understand really helps prepare us to do it with real cases,” mentioned MPH pupil Charli Abitbol, who was a part of a group that labored on a quantitative survey proposal.  

“We had the opportunity to practice combatting an outbreak, today.”

On Nov. 13, nationwide well being reporter Alanna Smith attended this workshop nearly to seize an inside search for The Globe and Mail. Read their coverage.