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The Angolan Pandemic Rapid Response Team: An Assessment, Improvement, and Development Analysis of the First Self-sufficient African National Response Team Curriculum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 November 2018

Michael D. Owens  and
Jason Rice
Michael D. Owens*
Affiliation:
Naval Medical Center, Portsmouth, Virginia
Jason Rice
Affiliation:
Navy Environmental and Preventive Medicine Unit 7, Rota, Spain
*
Correspondence and reprint requests to Michael D. Owens, Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, 620 John Paul Jones Circle, Portsmouth, VA 23708 (e-mail: Michael.d.owens18.civ@mail.mil).
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Abstract

Objective

The purpose of this study was to assess, through participant self-assessment, the effectiveness of a rapid response team curriculum based on the World Health Organization (WHO) Ebola Virus Disease Consolidated Preparedness Checklist, Revision 1.

Methods

A pre-and-post survey for the purpose of process improvement assessment involving 44 individuals was conducted in Angola. The survey was conducted before and after a 6-day training workshop held in Luanda, Angola, in December 2017. A paired t-test was used to identify any significant change on six 7-point Likert scale questions with α <.05 (95% CI).

Results

Two of the 6 questions, “I feel confident the team can effectively work together to accomplish its assigned goals and objectives during a suspected contagious hemorrhagic fever disease outbreak” and “I understand basic pandemic response concepts” changed significantly from the presurvey to the postsurvey. The 4 remaining questions had near statistical significant change or an upward trend.

Conclusion

This Angolan rapid response team training curriculum based on WHO guidelines, After Action Reports, and internationally accepted standard operating procedures provides the nation of Angola with the confidence to rapidly respond at the national level to a highly infectious contagion in the region. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2019;13:577-581)

Keywords

Ebolarapid response teamspublic health emergencies of international concernhemorrhagic fever
Type
Original Research
Information
Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness , Volume 13 , Issue 3 , June 2019 , pp. 577 - 581
Copyright
Copyright © 2018 Society for Disaster Medicine and Public Health, Inc. This is a work of the U.S. Government and is not subject to copyright protection in the United States. 

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References

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