African countries pledge to tackle outbreak of epidemics

Health ministers from seven African countries on Wednesday adopted a collective response strategy for the recent outbreak of cholera and other communicable diseases in the region.

The ministers from the seven-member bloc, Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) also agreed to implement a number of measures to prevent a further spread of disease outbreaks in the region by developing a contingency plan with specific strategies aimed at responding, preventing and adequately controlling the emerging epidemics.

Speaking during the meeting in Nairobi, Mohamed Haji Abdinoor, Somalian Minister for Health and Human Services, said his government will support the region's response mechanisms to strengthen the overall integrated surveillance and response systems in the region.

"Somalia has been suffering from a collapsed health system since 1991 when the country lost central authority with lack of central disease control," Abdinoor told ministers from Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda.

"It is better to be ready than sorry. Somalia is recovering surely but slowly and our health sector needs funding from partners," he said.

Recent unusual rainfall in parts of the Horn of Africa region, including Somalia and parts of Kenya, have increased the risk for water-borne and vector-borne diseases.

The crisis in Mandera County in northeast Kenya, escalated very rapidly in June, where over 200 cases and 16 deaths have been reported.

Cases have also been reported across the border in Somalia and there is a high risk that the disease could further spread to nearby refugee camps or cross border areas in Ethiopia.

The outbreak has been further compounded by the simultaneous occurrence of Chikungunya, which has affected close to 80 percent of the population in Mandera east sub-county including 50 percent of the health workforce in Mandera town.

Dr. Joyce Moriku, Ugandan Minister for Health, reaffirmed the importance of building strong systems of communicable diseases and emphasized the need to mobilize and sanitize communities about their health.

"With little resources, it's not easy to contain disease outbreaks. We need to demonstrate unity with South Sudan following their latest crisis where her neighbors might be compelled to take in those fleeing the fighting," she said in reference to the fresh outbreak of hostilities in the country.

The ministers tasked the IGAD Secretariat to coordinate with Member States in order to employ a holistic approach to address the frequent outbreaks in the region through involvement of various sectors that have a role to reduce the impact of outbreaks.

El Sadeg Abdalla, IGAD Director of Economic and Social Cooperation, reminded the experts that part of the mandate of IGAD is to "coordinate response against any humanitarian crisis and disasters affecting any member country or a group of member countries".

Thomas Pitaud, the Disaster Risk Reduction Adviser at the United Nations Development Programme, said stakeholders ought to be pro-active and anticipate the risks to make it easy to swiftly and effectively tackle outbreak of epidemics when they occur. Endit