By George M.O. Williams
The Ministry of Health and Sanitations (MoHS) has received a high-level delegation comprising representatives of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Africa- Center for Disease Control (CDC), who are on a one-week fact finding mission to strengthen the health security and emergency capacity, and also to implement the Emergency Preparedness and Response initiatives in Sierra Leone
The welcome and presentation on the objectives of the mission was held on Monday 6 November 2023, at the Ministry of Health’s Conference Hall in Freetown.
The initiative is a follow up on the recommendation by African Health Ministers to adopt a new strategy to transform health security in the region during the seventy-second session of the WHO Regional Committee for Africa in Lome in August 2022 and forms part of the WHO regional Strategy for Health Security and Emergencies 2022-2030, which aims at strengthening member states capacities to effectively prepare, detect and respond to public health emergencies through three flagship programs including Promoting the resilience of systems for emergencies (PROSE), Transforming African Surveillance Systems (TASS), and Strengthening and Utilizing Response Groups for Emergencies (SURGE).
In his presentation, the Africa Center for Disease Control Team Lead, Dr. Radjabu Bigirimana said that there is a need for better health security in the African continent, noting that that need can only be achieved when facts are available about handling high burden diseases.
“The facts that our region faces high burden of disease, public health emergencies, which increasing with increasing complexity COVID-19 has, again exposed becomes the continent with limited health workforce for Information Management, weak health systems,” Dr. Bigirimana
He added that as a roadmap to enhance future success, the WHO came up with three main areas that need to be built on existing capacities to ensure preparedness, promoting resilience of health systems, transforming Africa surveillance systems, and strengthening and utilizing responses for health emergencies.
He mentioned that there is also urgency at the national level to strengthen emergency professional preparedness, response and resilience capacities as it is worth noting that Africa is leading the way in protecting the world against pandemics.
He cited that Africa is reimagining her surveillance systems, as well as creating an emergency health workforce that could be able to deploy within 24 hours during emergency.
The Deputy Minister 1 of Health and Sanitation, Professor Charles Senessie, said Sierra Leone has learned a lot from the past pandemics, and thus she is pleased to work with partners by providing details in tackling future pandemic.
Representative of WHO, Dr. Innocent Nuwagira said that the idea to embark on a fact-finding mission was part of the continuous initiative by the Government of Sierra Leone in preparing for the next deadly pandemic that will strike the world.
He added that it is hoped that the Ministry will tap into the knowledge and skills of the international technical experts and in turn share experiences that will benefit all.
He admonished colleagues to embrace the opportunity as it will go a long way to facilitate ongoing preparation and strengthen future collaboration.