The inaugural Rift Valley fever (RVF) online course, hosted by the Enhancing Research for Africa Network (ERFAN), took place from the 23rd to the 26th of November 2020. The course was free to all participants and sponsored by ERFAN in collaboration with Office International des Epizooties (OIE) - the World Organization for Animal Health.

The online course was open to ERFAN partners in both Africa and Europe. In total 78 participants registered for the course with an average daily attendance of 50 people for the duration of the four-day online event. Attendees were from 23 countries: Algeria, Angola, Austria, Botswana, Burkina Faso, DRC, Egypt, Ethiopia, Italy, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Tunisia, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The course content included the history of RVF on the African continent and the risk of its introduction in the Mediterranean Basin. The course also covered current work on RVF and other topics focused on aetiology, epidemiology, vectors and the disease in humans and animals, diagnosis, risk reduction and control.

Presenters included experts from the University of Pretoria (UP), National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), Agricultural Research Council - Onderstepoort Veterinary Research (ARC-OVR) Institute in South Africa, and Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise “G. Caporale” (IZSAM) in Teramo, Italy.

From participant feedback and discussions with the organizers the course was a success and gives the hosting organization motivation to continue with the RVF online course in 2021 and to embark on other initiatives to achieve the objectives of ERFAN in providing training initiatives to all their partner countries.

Introduction

ERFAN (www.erfan.it) was founded in 2017 and received funding from the OIE to pursue its goal of building fruitful collaborations between African countries and Italian institutions on animal and human health. In accordance with the Italian Ministry of Health, the IZSAM was appointed as the lead partner and Dr Massimo Scacchia as the project leader.

ERFAN has 14 working groups (WG) linked to specific topics and related to the two geographical areas covered by the international network (Southern Africa and Northern Africa). The Vector-borne Diseases WG, as referred to SADC Region, coordinated by Prof Luis Neves (UP) and Dr Federica Monaco (IZSAM), developed a number of objectives especially associated with Rift Valley fever (RVF). One of these goals was to present a course on RVF to the African partners of the network. During the ERFAN WG meeting held in Windhoek, Namibia, in September 2019, it was determined that there was a need for training on this topic on the African continent.

This course was initially planned to take place during May 2020 at the Onderstepoort Campus of the University of Pretoria. However, we found ourselves in a pandemic and under strict lockdown levels, which meant if we still wanted to move ahead with giving the course we had to consider presenting it on an online platform. Therefore, during September 2020 the decision was taken by the organizing committee to start planning for an online course. The key people involved in the organization of the event were Dr Darshana Morar-Leather, Prof Luis Neves (event organization leaders), Dr Massimo Scacchia, Ms Chiara Sensoli, Ms Laura De Antoniis, Prof Koos Coetzer, and Prof Peter Thompson. Technical support during the four day event was provided by Dr Darshana Morar-Leather, Dr Sunday Ochai and Ms Nokuzola Faith Nkosi.

Presenters from three institutions in South Africa and one institution from Italy were involved in the presentation of this course. All presenters were approached to contribute to the programme and prepared course material for the online course. Below is the list of presenters and their affiliations.

Programme and speakers

There were 17 presenters involved in the course. The course was presented over a period of four-half-day sessions starting at 08:15 in the morning and ending at 13:00 most days. The RVF course consisted of live online sessions and self-study activities that were to be performed by the participants in their own time in preparation for the online sessions. The self-study component was included in the programme to provide the participants with time to go through course material before a live session but also to guide and help the participants with time management during this course.
Below is the list of the presenters and their affiliations:

Prof Koos Coetzer – Extraordinary professor in the Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Prof Robert Swanepoel - Extraordinary professor in the Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Dr Paolo Calistri – Head of the Veterinary Epidemiology and Risk Assessment Unit, National Reference Centre for Veterinary Epidemiology - Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise “G. Caporale” (IZSAM), Italy
Dr Alison Lubisi – Head of Diagnostic Virology, Agricultural Research Council – Onderstepoort Veterinary Research Institute, South Africa
Prof Peter Thompson – Professor in Veterinary Epidemiology, Department of Production Animal Studies, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Dr Annamaria Conte – Head of the Statistics and GIS Unit, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise “G. Caporale” (IZSAM), Italy
Dr Jacqueline Weyer – Senior medical scientist at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) of the National Health Laboratory Service, Johannesburg, South Africa
Prof Lucille Blumberg - Extraordinary professor in the Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria, South Africa, & Deputy Director of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) of the National Health Laboratory Service, Johannesburg, South Africa
Dr Jannie Crafford – Senior lecturer in the Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Prof Melvyn Quan – Associate Professor in the Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Ms Veerle Dermaux-Msimang – Bio-engineer, Centre for Emerging and Zoonotic Diseases, National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) of the National Health Laboratory Service, Johannesburg, South Africa
Dr Lieza Odendaal – Lecturer in the Department of Paraclinical Studies, Section Veterinary Public Health, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Pretoria, South Africa
Dr David Wallace – Senior researcher, Agricultural Research Council – Onderstepoort Veterinary Research Institute, and Extraordinary lecturer in the Department of Veterinary Tropical Diseases University of Pretoria, South Africa
Mr Alan Kemp – Medical entomologist/ecologist, National Institute of Communicable Diseases
Dr Maria-Luisa Danzetta – Veterinary Epidemiology and Risk Assessment Unit, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell’Abruzzo e del Molise “G. Caporale” (IZSAM), Italy