Botswana strengthens emergency response
Botswana supports the adoption of the World Health Organisation (WHO) ‘Regional Strategy’ for Health Security and Emergencies 2022–2030’.
Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Edwin Dikoloti who was in the company of other African Health Ministers in Lome, Togo says this strategy comes at the right time, as they note the achievements from the previous regional strategy, and notably the reduction in the median time used to respond and contain outbreaks.
African Ministers had gathered to adopt the eight-year regional strategy.
Dr Dikoloti said the COVID-19 pandemic tested the resilience of their disease response mechanisms and the health system, therefore this new strategy is expected to be useful.
“We cannot over-emphasise the need for efficient and responsive health care systems that are people oriented and adaptive to crisis. In this regard we support the ambitious objectives and the proposed targets to be achieved in the strategy,” Dikoloti said.
Botswana is among the 45-member states in the region implementing the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR). “We have also incorporated the strategy into our national action plan for health security,” says Dr Dikoloti.
Botswana was also among the first five countries to pilot the Strengthening and Utilising Response Groups for Emergencies (SURGE) flagship initiative.
“We successfully trained 70 multi-disciplinary professionals who are registered with WHO Regional database ready to deploy within and beyond Botswana within 24-48 hours,” shares Dr Dikoloti.
Currently, their efforts are to strengthen community-based surveillance for rapid detection and response at community level.
“To date, training has been cascaded to more than 60 percent of the health districts, reaching more than 500 healthcare workers and 50 percent of district with trained Rapid Response Team with regard to building national capacity,” Dikoloti said.
He added that they have strengthened their laboratory and surveillance in genomic sequencing as exemplified by their discovery of the COVID-19 Omicron Variant.
The Ministry has also embarked on establishing the National Public Health Institution as an authority to coordinate a multi-sector response to health emergencies, and a functional Public Health Emergency Operation Centre (PHEOC).
The Frontline Field Epidemiology Training has been introduced as part of building skilled workforce for health emergencies.