Govt asked to establish surveillance system to track diseases
A team of medical experts from the World Health Organisation (WHO) has called on the government to commit resources towards the establishment of an anti-microbiology surveillance system to track diseases that posed danger to life.
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According to the Joint External Evaluation (GEE) team of the World Health Organisation's (WHO) Regional Office for Africa (AFRO), the surveillance system would enable the government to track an outbreak within the shortest time possible.
The head of the team, Dr Ambrose Talisuna, was speaking to the Daily Graphic in an interview at the end of a one-week evaluation workshop in Accra.
The validation exercise was to put out a scorecard to assess Ghana’s capacity and level of preparedness to respond to disease outbreak in the country and the sub-region.
Preparedness
Dr Talisuna indicated that the sub-region was interrelated in various areas and that failure by governments, including Ghana to prepare adequately for any disease situation could endanger the health of citizens.
He also called for support from development partners to contain the outbreak of diseases within the sub-region.
“The outbreak of Ebola and its consequences on the region is a lesson for everyone to see, and the time has come for governments to be committed towards fighting these outbreaks and health risks,” Dr Talisuna said.
Commendation
Dr Talisuna commended Ghana for her level of preparedness in containing the spread of diseases. Among the areas assessed by the team were epidemiology training and immunisation outreach programmes which were constantly carried out across the country.
“The team had a transparent assessment of Ghana’s health sector and I believe the country is doing so well, but there is the need to do more,” he added.
According to him, the team would be coming back to the country towards the end of the year to assist in developing a robust action plan for the health sector.
The team of experts comprised 10 personnel, including veterinary and epidemiology specialists draw from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), German Development Corporation (GIZ) and Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH).
Appreciation
The Director-General (DG) of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Ebenezer Appiah-Denkyira, expressed appreciation to the team for the assessment done on Ghana’s health sector.
He stated that the programme provided opportunity for knowledge sharing between the experts and representatives from the GHS.
Dr Appiah-Denkyira indicated that the major challenge facing the sector was the lack of funds.
“But there is the need for transparency in order to attract the needed resources,” he emphasised.
On immunisation, the Director-General stated that there was the need for specific identification numbers for newborns in order to track them to ensure that they were immunised adequately and on time.
