THE World Health Organisation, WHO, in collaboration with the State government has embarked on the training of health facility staff in Anambra Central Senatorial Zone on Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response Training, IDSR.

The two-day training was held simultaneously at all seven Local government headquarters in Anambra Central.

At Ojoto, Idemili South, Esther Ofuonu, Disease Surveillance and Notification Officer, DSNO, emphasised the importance of prompt report of any disease identified at any community to avoid morbidity and mortality.

She said that the training had in attendance staff of Primary Healthcare Centres, PHC, health posts and some drawn from private hospitals.

“The training will help them to understand when and how to report diseases timely as some are reported daily, weekly and monthly.

“These staff generate data on diseases that will be analysed for proper response,” said Ofuonu.

The DSNO officer explained that diseases could be classified into three, while reporting.

These include `priority diseases’, `diseases targeted for eradication’ and elimination’ and `diseases of public health importance’.

“Priority diseases reported daily are epidemic-prone diseases that cause outbreaks like cholera, yellow fever, viral hemorrhagic fever like Ebola fever, Lassa fever and Dengue fever.

“Diseases targeted for eradication and elimination is reported weekly like Polio, measles, Bruli Ulcer (Eni ule). The diseases of public health importance reported monthly are malaria, HBP, Diabetes, HIV/AIDS and others,’’ Ofuonu said.

Saliu Oladele, WHO facilitator, stressed that they had concluded training of DSNOs at the state level, saying that they would be stepping down to train the health facilities’ staff.

He noted that, there were three modules that include, identification, reporting and response.

“Module 1 includes identifying the cases using: ‘Standard case definition, Clinical case definition and Community case definition’ which are documented in the In-patients and Out-patients registers.

“Module 2 is reporting the cases, which involves extracting data from module 1 and filling the forms for daily single cases; and weekly aggregate reporting for outbreaks on public health.

“Module 3 is the analysis and interpretation. WHO and State governments use the result to take proper action.

“Maps, charts, graph and tables are used to monitor the disease and its control,” Oladele added.

He said the facility staff reports to the LGA DSNO, who collates data and reports to the state within deadline for proper response.

The officer urged the health facility staff to ensure they generate reliable data for adequate response from WHO and government.

– Sept. 20, 2018 @ 14:10 GMT |