According to WHO, 2,156 Sierra Leonean health practitioners now have the relevant skills in detecting, reporting and responding to a disease outbreak. The revitalization of Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) in Sierra Leone has been prioritized as part of achieving a ‘resilient zero’ following the Ebola outbreak. To build skills among health workers, there has been continual training of health workers to ensure health facilities nationwide have at least one health worker trained in IDSR.
Supported by the U.S. Centre for Disease Control (CDC), the UK Government, WHO, worked with the Ministry of Health to carry out supervision exercise for IDSR in 170 health facilities.
The Manager, National Disease Surveillance and Response Programme, Rolland Conteh, said, “In 2016, we saw considerable progress in implementing surveillance activities including efforts in rolling out the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response Programme, and community-based surveillance data with positive results and established the Rapid Response Teams nationally and in the districts.”
Significant progress was made in strengthening the national surveillance and reporting system. On average, 93% of health facilities were submitting weekly IDSR reports by the end of last year, far exceeding an initial 80% target for the year. Targets were net for reporting of suspected outbreaks and public health events. 92% were notified to the district health authorities within 24-hours of detection, and for 90% of the cases, Rapid Response was initiated within 48-hours.
Last year a total of 618 maternal deaths were detected and reported through the existing IDSR system, with data used for investigation, review and action geared towards the reduction of maternal mortality.
Sierra Leone was among the 10 countries in Africa selected to participate in an International Health Regulations (IHR) joint external evaluation exercise.
By Ophaniel Gooding
Tuesday April 25, 2017.
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