Jobs at World Health Organization (WHO)

Under the general supervision of the PEP Cluster Lead, and the direct supervision of the Surveillance Officer, the incumbent performs the following functions:

• Prepare and support the implementation and monitoring of a comprehensive surveillance workplan.
• Support the National and State authorities to achieve and sustain certification standard Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) surveillance.
• Facilitate the conduct of other AFP complimentary surveillance activities, such as the Environmental Surveillance
• In collaboration with other partners, facilitate outbreak risk assessments and timely outbreak investigations within the scope of the health emergencies.
• Strengthen the capacities of the National and state surveillance teams for the effective and sustained surveillance of vaccine preventable diseases and other epidemic prone diseases through training.
• Undertake regular field supervision visits to assess and evaluate the implementation of surveillance activities, identify gaps and recommend corrective actions based on key performance indicators.
• Support the functioning of the national polio committees through facilitation of meetings, provision of data and adequate documentation.
• Support the national polio laboratories through field visits, facilitation of accreditation exercises, logistics and poliovirus containment.
• Support the surveillance of Adverse Events Following Immunization (AEFI) and Adverse Events of Special Interest (AESI) through training, provision of logistics and supporting the National Expert Committee on AEFI
• Perform any other incident-specific related duties, as required by the functional supervisor.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

Education

• Essential: First level university degree in medicine and/or public health planning and administration, complemented by training in public health/epidemiology/health science.
• Desirable: Master's degree in public health or equivalent. Training n epidemiology and/or outbreak investigation will be asset.

Experience

• Essential: At least 7years of experience required in public health surveillance with emphasis on emergency response relief and/or the management of epidemic-prone diseases.
• Desirable: Experience in the areas of outbreak investigation and response for emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, particularly in developing countries.

Skills

• Demonstrated knowledge, competency and professional skills on the public health aspects of infectious disease control,
• Epidemic and pandemic preparedness and response with particular attention to application of an all-hazard approach in the context of the International Health Regulations (2005) and the use of event based and indicator-based surveillance, as well as descriptive epidemiology and principles of public health in communicable disease surveillance and response;
• Managerial skills for the development, implementation, monitoring and analysis of public health programmes for infectious diseases within a highly demanding work environment.
• Sound knowledge and skills in database management and statistical analysis, secondary data review, survey designing and implementation, monitoring and evaluation systems design or use, and public health information management.
• Strong professional oral and writing skills including the development of reports, oral presentations and technical guidance and advocacy documents.

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Under the overall guidance of the WHO country office representative and over all supervision of SHI Cluster Lead and guidance of the Zonal Coordinator, the incumbent will carry out the following specific task: Ensure that Quality Control and Standard Procedures are strictly adhered to for specimen handling and processing in the laboratory.

To provide services for Laboratory backed Surveillance:

• Development of Laboratory work plans
• Enterovirus isolation and identification using the WHO recommended guidelines and procedures,
• Tissue culture maintenance and propagation
• Specimens Processing and handling
• To liaise with other partners in support of AFP laboratory backed surveillance
• To ensure that WHO guidelines and standard operating procedures are strictly adhered to as recommended by WHO
• Supervision to the Laboratory assistants.

Secondary activities that the laboratory staff will be involved in include:

• Measles diagnostic procedures for measles isolation and identification. According to WHO guidelines
• Vaccine quality control activities including vaccine sampling and potency testing when indicated.

Laboratory Data Management

• Establish, maintain and up-date Polio laboratory databases pertaining to AFP/contact and environmental surveillance (ES) lab result.
• Ensure regular feedback of data and relevant information as required to all levels.
• Troubleshoot and prover solutions to data quality issues
• Ensure regular tracking of laboratory shipments and supplies
• Establish, maintain and up-date Polio laboratory databases pertaining to AFP/contact and environmental surveillance (ES) lab result.
• Perform data harmonization and cleaning on all AFP data received using the WHO Data Quality Check and harmonization Tool.
• Ensures weekly sharing of the polio lab data to national WHO and AFRO on a weekly basis.
• Provide regular feedback on any data harmonization issue to the concerned zone and state.
• Track and obtain missing or incomplete data/reports and provide feedback to relevant levels.
• Produce weekly, monthly and quarterly analysis feedback on key polio laboratory indicators.
• Create and secure back-up copies of data in the lab.
• Provide technical support in training and troubleshooting to other countries of the region on laboratory data management in polio laboratory activities as the need arises.
• Documentation and report writing and report writing as a way of feedback to relevant partners
• Ensure regular monitoring, compilation and submission of laboratory equipment and consumable orders to WHO regional office
• Perform other activities as required by WHO Representative

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE

Qualifications

• Essential: First level University degree in Laboratory Science or Biology or any other related field
• Desirable: Master’s Degree in Laboratory Science or Biology or any other related field.
• Essential:  At least 5 years’ work experience commensurate with the duties of the posts and its grade.
• Desirable: Experience in WHO, UN or other international organizations

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Under the overall guidance of the WHO country office representative and over all supervision of SHI Cluster Lead and guidance of the Zonal Coordinator, the incumbent will carry out the following specific task:

• Decontamination of potentially infected materials as described in the laboratory Bio-safety Standard Operating Procedures (SOP).
• Washing and sterilizing of glass and plastic ware for subsequent use in the laboratory diagnostic processes.
• Ensure appropriate disposal of laboratory waste as described in the lab Biosafety SOPs.
• Ensuring that standard guidelines and operating procedures are strictly adhered to when performing all laboratory procedures.
• Working with the Technologist in charge, prepare laboratory media and tissue culture reagents as described in the SOPs:
• Participate in Specimen receipt and processing for virus inoculation.
• Ensure optimal functioning of autoclaves and distillers by:
• recording use in the Autoclave and Distiller Utilization forms respectively.
• removing debris from autoclaves and conducting equipment performance checks once a week.
• reporting any malfunction to the supervisor
• Performs any other duties as assigned by the supervisor.

Education (Qualifications):

• Essential: Completion of Secondary school education, and/or training in medical laboratory Sciences.
• Desirable: University degree or its equivalent in medical laboratory sciences or related discipline.

Experience:

• Essential:  At least 4 years’ work experience commensurate with the duties of the posts and its grade.
• Desirable: Experience in WHO, UN or other international organizations