Health
THE Anambra State Health Commissioner, Dr. Vincent Okpala, has assured the government of his readiness to partner the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) in tackling disease outbreaks in Anambra.
He said this during courtesy call by a Disease Surveillance Team from Federal
Ministry of Health in his office at the Jerome Udoji Secretariat Complex, Awka.
Okpala said that Gov. Willie Obiano had channeled his energy toward ensuring
that healthcare facilities in the state were upgraded for optimal services for
Ndi Anambra.
The commissioner noted that creative means would be considered so as to
ensure that the device would be in the same page with reporting of outbreaks.
He commended the initiators of the project while also assuring them of the
ministry’s support in the implementation of Surveillance Outbreak Response Management and Analysis System (SORMAS) in the state.
Dr. Wunmi Adebayo, NCDC Team Leader, said that the agency was partnering
Anambra for the implementation of SORMAS.
“SORMAS is basically designed for Surveillance of Disease Outbreak Response Management and Analysis System.’’
She said that SORMAS application was developed in collaboration with German
partners and NCDC to detect outbreaks in Nigeria.
“SORMAS was strengthened to survey; identify outbreak response management
and system analysis.
“NCDC as a government agency is to ensure proper surveillance of disease
outbreak in the country,’’ she emphasised.
According to her, since 2014 SORMAS has been rolled out across 11 states
and that Anambra is next in their schedule.
“At the initiation of the project, NCDC is responsible for the procurement of
tablets, training of disease surveillance and notification officers from 21 Local
Government Areas of the state.
“We also insure the tablets because of the way it works. So we don’t want
interruption within the first one year whereby someone will say that his or her
tablet has been stolen or snatched.’’
”Usually, we insure the tablets in case anything happens so that within 72 hours they can easily be replaced by the insurance company, Adebayo said.
“If someone in Aguata LGA has Ebola case, once it is put on the tablet,
instead of using the form, the state Epidemiologist can easily see as the
cases are coming.
“The way the system works means that, the SORMAS will automatically
generate all the information.
“Two tablets will be provided by NCDC to each LGA so that they can actually
put in information of diseases like Lassa fever and contact tracing.
“With the tablet one can actually follow up about contacts, if any contact is
becoming a case and how the outbreak is going,’’ she explained.
Dr. Chijioke Obagha Anambra State Epidemiologist said that the beauty of the
project was that it would help to look at the information flow as it arrived.
He noted that currently a lot of paper base were in use along the line in a chain of
transmission, losing some vital information but with SORMAS and the way it worked, data would cue in at the LGA level.
“The SORMAS helps to make quick and fast decisions in cases of outbreaks.
Diseases surveillance officers and assistants selected will undergo training.
“That is one person each, from the three senatorial zones in the state.’’
BE
– July 16, 2019 @ 18:55 GMT |
Tags: Anambra partners Centre for Disease Control
