MOH holds 3-day retreat in Ganta

A three-day retreat on the national public health institute of Liberia has opened in Ganta, Nimba County. The retreat is being conducted by authorities of the Ministry of Health, bringing together about 20 members of the House of Representatives of the 53rd Liberian Legislature.

Deputy Minister of Health Tolbert Nyenswah, said the retreat is intended to discuss current state of a proposed national public health institute. Minister Nyenswah said the strategic and operational objectives of the proposed national public health institute includes among others, to develop a sustainable public health workforce, surveillance and response capabilities as well as strengthen laboratory system and public health diagnostics, and expand coordinated public health and medical research to inform the public on Liberia’s health policies.

Also speaking at the opening ceremony, the chair of the Liberian Senate Standing Committee on Health, Senator Dr. Peter Coleman, said the retreat will enable lawmakers to have a clear understanding in order to present the draft Act for the proposed national public health institute of Liberia to the joint committees on judiciary for review and input.

According to Dr. Coleman, the proposed institute will focus on providing diagnostic capacity for timely and reliable detection of priority diseases. He told this paper a laboratory and public health diagnostics center will be established in several parts of the country to train personnel to respond to any outbreak.

The chair of the House of Representatives Committee on Health, Representative Johnson Chea, told our Nimba County Correspondent the establishment of the national public health institute of Liberia will help to implement public surveillance and develop national strategic plans to respond to disease outbreak.

He said the institute will improve surveillance to reduce morbidity and mortality shift for effective prevention to cut down treatment costs and improve independent research.

By Franklin Doloquee, Nimba-Editing by Jonathan Browne