WHO Lyon office of the cluster of surveillance and response (CSR), communicable disease department (CDS)
Contact person
Denis CoulombierEpidemiology strengthening team coordinator
WHO-Lyon office
58, avenue Debourg
69007 Lyon, France
Tel +33 (4) 72 71 64 77
Description of the institute
The World Health Organization (WHO) with the support of the Municipality of Lyon, the French Government, and the Marcel Mérieux Foundation opened a WHO Office in Lyon, France on 8 February 2001. The office is part of the WHO Department of Communicable Disease Surveillance and Response (CSR), whose goal is to achieve global health security – epidemic alert and response. An integral part of CSR, the WHO/CSR Office in Lyon fulfil the WHO mandate in the field of epidemiology and public health laboratory capacity strengthening.Training site
The EPIET training site is located in the Epidemiology Strengthening team, which:- Coordinates CSR epidemiology strengthening activities for the preparedness, detection and control of outbreak
- Assists the WHO Global outbreak alert and response network for providing support to countries during outbreaks
- Is the focal point for epidemiology training activities through TEPHINET and other field epidemiology training programmes
- Carries out applied research activities in the field of epidemiological methods for early warning systems and control of communicable diseases in complex emergencies.
Training opportunities
The training site offers many opportunities in the field of epidemiology applied to control of epidemic prone diseases worldwide. In 2003, the team coordinated communicable disease surveillance and response in Southern-Iraq, carried-out surveillance of meningitis in 9 Sahel countries (3 month Epiet fellow field assignment), investigated a CCHF outbreak in Turkey and a yellow fever outbreak in Southern-Sudan, contributed to the study of risk-factors associated with heat-wave in France (Epiet assignment), assisted China in strengthening surveillance in the post-outbreak period (3 month field assignment), and much more.... The site is granted direct access to surveillance data of many countries, which represents a good opportunity to develop further research projects.Training supervision
The overall supervision will be provided by Dr Marta Valenciano, Epiet alumni, in collaboration with 2 senior epidemiologists, Dr Augusto Pinto and Dr Julia Fitzner.Language requirements
English and another WHO official language. French not mandatory, though an asset.Training history
Number of EPIET fellows trained at institute: One (2002) Number of alumni at institute: Three Available as a training site for cohort 11: No