UoH students appointed as epidemiologists for Covid in TS districts

Hyderabad: In the wake of Covid-19 crisis, over 11 students from the School of Medical Sciences at the University of Hyderabad (UoH) have been appointed as district epidemiologists in different states. The students of the MPH Programme of School of Medical Sciences of 2016, 2017 and 2018 batches were chosen for this position.

Among them, eight students were posted in different districts of Telangana and one student in Assam. Those posted as epidemiologists include K. Emmanuel from Kothagudem, E. Ravikanth (Vikarabad), Anitha Rathod (Sircilla), Monica Suhasini (Kamareddy), M. Snehalatha (Medchal), K. Nikitha Reddy (Wanaparthy), Arutla Vasavi (Ranga Reddy), S. Kranthi Kumar (Gadwal), Cornelioush Basumatary (Assam).

Four other members of the outgoing batch (2018 – 2020) are working with the Telangana state government through the WHO-Integrated District Surveillance Project (IDSP), by providing technical and desk-based support for contact tracing, line listing, spot mapping, active and passive surveillance for Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI), including Covid-19 and Influenza like illnesses (ILL).

All these students stand a good chance of being considered for placement, once the provisional completion certificate is secured, said the University administration.

Over 15 students of the 2019 batch and second semester MPH are already one month into the surveillance activities across various districts in Telangana.

The UoH official spokesperson said, “Doctoral scholars of the public health stream have also been assisting various entities in the containment activities, both actively and passively. This is in addition to their individual doctoral research work.”

“The faculty of the public health stream are also working to build capacity among different sections across the country, region and also international-level on issues relating to the pandemic through webinars and social media interactions. A recent webinar on epidemiology attracted 228 attendees. The School of Medical Sciences at the University of Hyderabad (UoH) has been running the MPH programme from 2013,” the spokesperson reminded.