Liberia receives boost in health sector

The African Development Bank, Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA)/USAID, and the World Bank have boosted Liberia’s efforts to building a robust disease surveillance system with the donation of consignment of 17 four-wheel drive vehicles, 190 motorcycles, 100 desktops, 120 laptops, 100 printers, 136 high-frequency radios, 100 desks, 600 chairs and 10 emergency health kits to the Ministry of Health.

A press release from the ministry says the consignment procured through the World Health Organization was presented to the Minister of Health, Dr. Bernice Dahn, on Monday, February 15, 2016 in Congo Town outside Monrovia.

The release says this consignment will be distributed to Surveillance and Rapid Response Teams at national, county and district levels to support intensified surveillance for Ebola, other priority diseases and conditions, including maternal deaths.

The African Development Bank, OFDA and World Bank have provided generous financial support through WHO for WHO’s response to the 2014/2015 Ebola Virus Disease outbreak as well as for implementation of Liberia’s Investment Plan for Building a Resilient Health System.

Liberia continues to register progress in efforts to respond to the health status of the citizenry through building a resilient health system. The Health Ministry says a robust Health Emergency Risk Management System has been developed through building public health capacity for prevention, preparedness, alert and response for disease outbreaks and other threats.

MoH has overseen the revision of national guidelines for Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR), elaborated a five-year strategic plan for IDSR and International Health Regulations and designated disease surveillance officers in all 91 health districts in the country. All 15 counties have elaborated county Epidemic Preparedness and Response (EPR) plans and designated Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) to promptly deal with health threats including disease outbreaks.

With support of technical partners and donors, over 1,500 front-line health workers were trained in IDSR and several cohorts of County and District Surveillance Officers have been trained in field epidemiology, the release notes.