Senior Epidemiologist at Avram Corporation

Job description

Purpose: To provide Polio immunization surveillance support and epidemiology expertise to the Global Polio Eradication Initiative and the United States Centers for Disease Control with direct support of the National Emergency Response Center (EOC) for polio.

Activities

• Develop Acute Flaccid Paralysis (AFP) strengthening plans for each country in the Middle East.
• Evaluate immunity gaps at the sub-national level in each country in and develop proposals to improve routine immunization and National Immunization Days (NIDs) in these areas to decrease immunity gaps.
• Determine hard-to-reach populations in each country of and develop strategies to improve Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) coverage among these populations.
• Coordinate surveillance projects in Pakistan and, possibly in other countries such as Jordan and Kenya.
• Provide technical expertise and respond to requests from the Emergency Management Staff Trainee (EMST)/Polio Lead.

Working Conditions

• Extensive travel within Pakistan (including Karachi, Lahore, Quetta, and Peshawar) required (approximately 50% time).
• Occasional international travel (primarily Jordan and Kenya).
  Extended working hours (60 hours per week is not uncommon).

Packgaes and Benefits

• Competitive salary.
• Short term relocation package will be provided (includes travel to Pakistan, local travel, M&IE, local transportation, and lodging.)

Qualification

• MD/PhD and or MPH in one of the public health sciences, with emphasis on maternal child health.
• 10 plus years of experience working in immunization in the international setting.
• Senior level management experience with direct supervision guidance of staff and projects at the national level.
• Work experience in hard to reach area and hard to reach populations.
• In depth understanding of immunization and the polio eradication effort
• Flexibility to adapt in fast paced work environment.
• Proven ability to plan, organize and implement training activities and able use adult learning techniques.
• Significant senior level experience in polio eradication effort including but not limited to AFP surveillance, outbreak investigation, developing national guidelines/trainings, provide expert advice to the EOC in Pakistan etc.
• Ability to give advice at the national and international level on strategies to eradicate polio.
• Knowledge of and exposure of immunization in the Pakistan context with 10 or more years working within the existing health system including various levels (health facility, district, regional, national, and international).
• Knowledge of statistical analysis software and computer applications (SAS, SPSS, Excel, Access, Epi Info, GIS etc.)
• Good command of the English language with the ability to write technical reports and document project activities.

Background

The mission of the Polio Eradication Branch (PEB), Global Immunization Division (GID) in the Center for Global Health, is to plan and implement immunization activities globally as an active emergency response, with the immediate focus on polio eradication efforts in Africa, Asia and the Middle East, as well as on-site technical support at CDC headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. The Division is mandated to support polio eradication activities and vaccine preventable diseases (VPDs) such as measles, in support of the goal set by the World Health Organization and the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of worldwide eradication of the polio virus to include:

• Outbreak response, environmental surveillance, poliovirus containment, post-eradication planning, and polio program legacy activities;
• Measles elimination and control;
• Immunization systems strengthening, including routine immunization (RI) systems;
• New vaccine introduction;
• Workforce and information systems development;
• Improving the quality of immunization data collection;
• Implementation of vaccine preventable disease (VPD) surveillance in developing countries.

The Global Immunization Division engages in these activities as part of the international effort to eradicate Polio in coordination with Ministries of Health (MoH), the World Health Organization (WHO/Geneva) and UNICEF and/or projects implemented jointly with these organizations as part of the emergency activation for Polio via the CDC Emergency Operations Center (EOC).

Avram’s services to the Centers for Disease Control furthers’ GID’s mission and activities in informing the Ministries of Health on polio eradication strategies, VPD surveillance, polio campaign improvements, routine immunization implementation, data management, poliovirus containment and legacy activities. In addition, Avram supports the WHO cooperative agreement with CDC by providing a means for ‘substantial involvement’ as required by federal law.