Training during the COVID-19 pandemic: the experience of public health registrars in the London and Kent, Surrey, Sussex training programme.

Background: Public Health registrars (SpRs) were an important component of the workforce that contributed to the COVID-19 response. This study explores their contribution and the impact the early stages of the pandemic had on their learning and training.

Methods: Data were collected from SpRs in the London and Kent, Surrey, Sussex training programme between July and September 2020 through a mixture of questionnaires and semi-structured interviews.

Training educational supervisors to support physician trainees returning to practice.

Physicians take time out of training for a variety of reasons and, on their return, they often lack confidence and feel 'out of touch'. These trainees require enhanced support and concerns have been raised about trainers' lack of skills and knowledge in this area. A standardised workshop was developed and delivered to address this with a mixed-methods evaluation approach used to analyse data from participants before and after training.

The United Kingdom Field Epidemiology Training Programme: meeting programme objectives.

IntroductionMost evaluations of field epidemiology training programmes (FETP) are limited to process measures, but stakeholders may need evidence of impact.ObjectiveTo ascertain if the United Kingdom (UK) FETP met its objectives to: (i) strengthen capacity and provision of national epidemiology services, (ii) develop a network of highly skilled field epidemiologists with a shared sense of purpose working to common standards and (iii) raise the profile of field epidemiology through embedding it into everyday health protection practice.MethodsThe evaluation consisted of: (i) focus groups with training site staff, (ii) individual interviews with stakeholders and (iii) an online survey of FETP fellows and graduates.

Case epidemiology from the first three years of a pilot laboratory-based surveillance system for elevated blood-lead concentrations among children in England, 2014-17: implications for public health action.

Background: Children incur lead toxicity even at low blood-lead concentrations (BLCs), and testing in England is opportunistic. We described epidemiology of cases notified to a passive laboratory-based surveillance system (SS), the Lead Poisoning in Children (LPIC) SS to inform opportunities to prevent lead exposure in children in England.

Methods: Surveillance population: children <16 years of age and resident in England during the reporting period September 2014-17.

Utility of Whole Genome Sequencing To Describe the Persistence and Evolution of Listeria monocytogenes Strains within Crabmeat Processing Environments Linked to Two Outbreaks of Listeriosis.

This article describes the identification and investigation of two extended outbreaks of listeriosis in which crabmeat was identified as the vehicle of infection. Comparing contemporary and retrospective typing data of Listeria monocytogenes isolates from clinical cases and from food and food processing environments allowed the detection of cases going back several years. This information, combined with the analysis of routinely collected enhanced surveillance data, helped to direct the investigation and identify the vehicle of infection.