Given South Sudan’s elevated vulnerability to illness outbreaks and different public well being threats, strengthening nationwide illness surveillance and response and methods is essential for early detection and fast containment of illness outbreaks to assist forestall unnecessary sicknesses and deaths.
To enhance the functioning of the nationwide surveillance system, the South Sudan Ministry of Well being supported by the World Well being Group (WHO) with funding from the European Union Humanitarian Help (ECHO) deployed a workforce of technical officers to 5 precedence states. These states included Warrap, Lakes, Central Equatoria, Japanese Equatoria, and Unity. The groups performed supportive supervision on the usage of the Built-in Illness Surveillance and Response (IDSR) pointers, job-aids, and reporting instruments to make sure well timed detection, investigation, and response to precedence illnesses, suspect outbreaks, and public well being threats.
In the course of the mission, the groups visited over 10 well being services to evaluate the usage of case definitions, digital IDSR reporting utilizing the Early Warning Alert and Response System (EWARS), and the usage of different IDSR sources to enhance surveillance and response efficiency. The groups additionally performed on-the-job mentorship to establish and handle well being care staff’ efficiency.
Due to WHO, “the talents acquired and the IDSR instruments supplied have helped ease our work by way of improved reporting, alert verification and investigation, and response to illness outbreaks and different public well being emergencies”, stated Akier Akier, a surveillance officer in Gogrial West County, Warrap State.
“Through the use of EWARS, the well being services proceed to submit their reviews and we are able to provoke alert verification and investigations instantly with automated disease-specific alerts”, stated Akier. “In November 2021, I managed to analyze practically 10 alerts of acute flaccid paralysis and two suspect measles instances which had been reported from the services by way of the EWARS system”.
“Because the rollout of coaching on the third version IDSR pointers, alert reporting in my State has improved by over 90 % and so has well timed investigation and response”, stated John Akol Akol, Warrap state surveillance Officer. “Additionally, reporting of bizarre well being occasions reminiscent of flooding and snake bites by well being services and neighborhood well being staff has improved”.
Strengthening illness surveillance by adopting and implementing the IDSR technique in any respect ranges is without doubt one of the key priorities of WHO in South Sudan.
Dr Fabian Ndenzako, the WHO Consultant a.i. for South Sudan underscored the significance of strengthening stakeholder engagement and collaboration to reinforce emergency response capacities within the nation. “WHO will proceed offering technical steerage to the Ministry of Well being and companions to strengthen the nationwide illness surveillance system,” stated Dr. Ndenzako. He additional acknowledged the continued collaboration and assist from ECHO and the US Company for Worldwide Growth (USAID) in direction of constructing a strong nationwide illness surveillance system.
South Sudan nonetheless suffers from common outbreaks of infectious illnesses like measles, water-borne illnesses reminiscent of diarrhea and Hepatitis E virus, and vector-borne illnesses like malaria and yellow fever and is presently responding to the present COVID-19 pandemic. The IDSR technique presently offers the framework for detecting, investigating, and responding to all these public well being safety threats utilizing the IDSR sources accessible on the neighborhood, well being facility, county, state, and nationwide stage.
In 2021, the Ministry of Well being with assist from the WHO rolled out the third version IDSR pointers countrywide. It additionally educated well being staff together with scientific, laboratory, knowledge officers, and surveillance officers and continues to distribute technical pointers to enhance surveillance and response capacities.
Since its rollout, the IDSR has improved illness surveillance and reporting by over 80 % in South Sudan.
Technical contact:
Dr Joseph Wamala, E mail: wamalaj@who.int
