To further boost Regional Disease Surveillance system Enhancement Project (REDISSE) the Ministry of Health and Sanitation together with the Ministry of Agriculture will implement the project as a result of lessons learnt from the Ebola epidemic.
The REDISSE was recently launched with support from the World Bank and will last for three years.
According to the Deputy Minister of Agriculture II, Lovell Thomas, a major disease outbreak of any type be it in human or animal can have serious socio-economic consequences which, at extreme may affect the national economy as was evident in the case of the Ebola outbreak.
He said planning for emergency disease eradication or control programs cannot be left until a disease outbreak has occurred.
Thomas added that the REDISSE is using the one health approach to improve the surveillance system for early detection of both human and animal diseases, which is a laudable approach because the animal health sector has long been starved of much needed support to combat or handle any animal health emergency and improve on animal health.
The Deputy Minister highlighted the many challenges in the World Animal Health Organisation, Performance of Veterinary services, and the joint external evaluation, which includes shortages of professional staff, weak infrastructure, obsolete laws, absence of disease control measures and low funding.
He noted that until these challenges are addressed, the Country will remain vulnerable to disease outbreak in animals which poses a serious threat to human health, and the only way to put safe guard measures in trans-border surveillance is to mend the weak link in the chain, which are the animal health delivery services.
Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea are the beneficiaries of the three year project, which will improve on both animal and human disease surveillance in the Mano river countries.
By By Ade Campbell
Twitter @humbled
Tuesday January 24, 2017
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