Dr. Salma Afifi is a senior technical specialist working for the eastern Mediterranean Public Health Network (EMPHNET). She holds a Bachelor of Medicine from Cairo University, a Master of Epidemiology, a Diploma of Occupational Health from Ain-Shams University, Cairo, a Non-degree Certificate in Zoonotic Diseases, Public Health Laboratory and Applied Epidemiology from Aiwa University, USA, and a Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) certificate from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC). She has extensive experience in setting up communicable disease surveillance systems, healthcare associated infections (HAI) and antimicrobial resistance (AMR), communicable disease surveillance and community-based interventions. Her research interests include respiratory infections, HAI and AMR, meningitis and viral hepatitis. She is also experienced in analyzing large data sets, for example, she has analyzed the data of “the Point Prevalence Survey on Antimicrobial Use and Healthcare Associated Infections in five countries in the EMR” and “the National Egyptian Survey for Prevalence of Viral Hepatitis” and “the National Egyptian Disease Surveillance System” (NEDSS). She also has experience in developing training curricula and materials for postgraduate training courses, such as the Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP), the One Health FETP for Egypt and the Infection Control and Prevention (IPC) training module for EMR. In addition, she has developed guidelines, manuals and standard operating procedures (SOPs), such as the injection safety guidelines and the NEDSS manual. She also has experience in developing study proposals and protocols and designing national studies, e.g. the National Viral Hepatitis Survey and NEDSS.
She has worked for the US Naval Medical Research Unit No.3 (NAMRU-3), US CDC, WHO EMRO, and Egypt Ministry of Health and Population. She also worked as a medical writer and has served as an Associate Editor for the BMC Public Health Journal and as a reviewer for many international peer-reviewed journals. She has published over 30 articles in international peer-reviewed journals.