ECOWAS health ministers organize response against coronavirus
Bamako, Mali (PANA) - Health ministers from member countries of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) met in Bamako on Friday to harmonize regional preparedness strategies for prevention, early detection and control of the coronavirus outbreak, which has already claimed more than a thousand lives in China, where it appeared a few weeks ago, an official source told PANA.
The meeting was organized by the West African Health Organization.
The Director of the West African Health Organization, Prof. Stanley Okolo, revealed that suspected cases of coronavirus have been reported in Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea and Nigeria, but after isolation, surveillance and comprehensive tests, none of these cases were confirmed to be positive.
He listed the actions taken by his organization, including the creation of ECOWAS' Regional Centre for Disease Surveillance and Control, the establishment of national public health institutions in all Member States, as well as internationally agreed best practices at the regional level as well as the strengthening of regional reference laboratories, networked to cover the region's biological diagnostic needs and the creation and regular upgrading of a team for regional response to epidemics.
Malian Prime Minister Boubou Cissé welcomed the meeting, which aimed to "promote a joint initiative to prevent the introduction of the disease through the establishment of different mechanisms, strategies and raising awareness at the national and sub-regional level on how to deal with this scourge."
According to him, the recent health crisis in West Africa, caused by Ebola virus disease, has caused about 28,000 cases with 11,000 deaths.
"In Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Senegal and Mali, this epidemic has not only demonstrated the limitations of our surveillance systems, but has also highlighted the need for collaboration between our countries in managing health problems," he said.
He continued that the pooling of multi-sector and multidisciplinary experience appears to be an imperative for improving the health and safety of populations because, "they will undoubtedly enable the establishment of cross-border mechanisms for the benefit of our people".
China's ambassador to Mali, Zhu Liying, said that "when the Chinese government became aware of the seriousness of the problem, it took extraordinary measures."
For example, he said, "it closed the city of Wuhan with its 12 million population, and Hubei province with 60 million people. It build two specialized hospitals with a total capacity of 2500 beds in record time".
According to Malian Health minister Michel Sidibé, ECOWAS, which has about 380 million people, does not even have three laboratories that can take care of patients effectively if there are such cases.
At the end of the meeting, ECOWAS Health ministers called for increased cross-border cooperation to deal with possible coronavirus cases.
Ministers also agreed to put in place an appropriate mechanism to prevent and combat the pandemic.
-0- PANA GT/JSG/BBA/AR 15Feb2020
