A number of thirty foodborne disease microbiologist from (16) members states of the Eastern Mediterranean region of the World Health Organization (WHO) took part in the Laboratory Data Analysis regional workshop set for countries of the PULSNET Middle East Foodborne Disease Surveillance Network.

The commencement of the workshop took place today (Monday) at Crown Plaza Muscat under the auspices of H.E. Dr. Mohammed Saif Al Hosni, Ministry of Health’s Undersecretary for Health Affairs, with the presence of H.E. Dr. Akjemal Magtymova, WHO Representative, Oman . The workshop is organized by the MOH represented by the Central Public Health Laboratories in collaboration with the WHO as well as Atlanta’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), USA.

The three-day workshop is held with the objectives of identifying and understanding  basics of the advanced whole genome sequencing technologies, stressing their advantages in comparison with the current traditional diagnostic methods, in addition to creating a whole genome sequence data and cluster detecting. The workshop further trains the participants on foodborne outbreak detection by studying cases as hypothetical examples, and calls for holding official meeting of the laboratory Pulse Net Middle East Foodborne Disease Surveillance Network committee.

The workshop is collaboratively conducted by Foodborne Disease screening experts from the American Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the American Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), as well as WHO.

Within three-days, the workshop highlights four theoretical themes along with a practical focus. Sessions of the first day discussed the current status of the PulseNet Middle East Network, update from WHO, Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE) and Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) capacity building, and new assessment tools for enteric diseases laboratory.

Practical training at the Central Public Health Laboratories (CPHL), Muscat will be run during the last two days of the workshop.