Foodborne outbreak simulation to teach field epidemiology: the Moroccan Field Epidemiology Training Program.

BACKGROUND: Morocco in 2010 launched a new field epidemiology training program to enhance the skills of health professionals in charge of epidemiological surveillance and to investigate outbreaks; including foodborne diseases that represent a very substantial burden of disease. AIM: To apply an active learning method to teach outbreak investigation within a controled environment for field epidemiology trainees program at the Moroccan National school of public Health.
METHODS: A scenario describing digestive symptoms evoking a restaurant-associated foodborne outbreak that would affect the school staff was designed for the residents to investigate, to assess their organizational capacity and application of all stages of epidemiological investigation.
RESULTS: Nine Residents applied study design, database management and statistical analysis to investigate the foodborne outbreak, to estimate attack rates, classify cases and controls, to identify the contaminated foods and pathogens and to issue preventive recommendations for the control and the prevention of further transmission. The overall resident's satisfaction of the learning method was 67%.
CONCLUSION: A simulation of an outbreak investigation within an academic setting is an active learning method to be used in the curriculum for introducing the residents on field epidemiology program to the principles and practices of outbreak investigation before their implication in a real situation.