TAU-SPH Teaching in Zambia

In 2015, Tel Aviv University School of Public Health (TAU-SPH) received a generous donation from the reminder of the Jewish community in Zambia, the donation supports academic cooperation between TAU-SPH and University of Copperbelt Michael Chilufya Sata School of Medicine (CBU-SOM) in Ndola, Zambia.

As part of the partnership, TAU-SPH assisted in the creation of a Masters of Public Health (MPH) program at CBU-SOM. In order to further support the MPH program, TAU-SPH faculty members will be travelling to teach intensive courses at CBU-SOM for the initial stages of the program.

The CBU-SOM MPH program opened for the 2017/2018 academic school year. In February, Professor Dani Cohen went to meet with CBU-SOM Dean Prof. Seter Siziya, the inaugural MPH class and CBU-SOM faculty. Prof. Cohen conducted a dialogue regarding future possibilities of establishing research projects of common interest to students and faculty, complimentary to the teaching objectives, some of which can serve as topics for MPH theses under supervision of local faculty and with academic support from TAU faculty members. Prof. Cohen also gave a talk to students, faculty and staff on epidemiology of diarrheal diseases and vaccines.  

Over the course of his visit, Prof. Cohen visited the main CBU campus in Kitwe and met Copperbelt University Vice Chancellor Prof. Naison Ngoma. Prof. Cohen also visited the new CBU-SOM campus and Jewish Community Building, the Arthur Davison Children’s Hospital, the Ndola University Teaching Hospital, the Tropical Diseases Research Centre, met with the directors of the institutes.

In March, Dr. Sigal Eilat-Adar went to CBU-SOM and taught a one-week intensive course entitled, “Health Promotion with a Focus on Nutritional Epidemiology and Food Security”.

Both visits were highly successful, and we look forward to future scheduled courses, including, “Public Health System and Economics: Universal Health Coverage in Zambia”; “Research Methods in Epidemiology with Selected Topics in Medical Informatics and Pharmacoepidemiology”; “Maternal and Child Health; HIV, TB and Additional Topics”; “Environmental and Occupational Health”; and others to be scheduled in the future.  

Furthermore, as in past years, select outstanding students and faculty members from CBU-SOM  will attend the Summer Institute of Advanced Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine in Tel Aviv in July.