After the meeting of Community of practice (COP) Laboratory and surveillance in Maputo (22-25 August 2017) which influenced the establishment of the cross border surveillance committees. Lesotho and South Africa established a committee named Thabo Mofutsanyana, under the Southern Africa TB Health Systems strengthening (SATBHSS) project. The above mentioned committee had to enhance the existing cross border activities, they had to operationalize existing south-Africa- Lesotho TB/HIV/AIDs initiatives. Furthermore the 2018 work plan had to be developed and adapted. It was in this juncture that the ISDR meeting was held in Blue Mountain to train the port of entry staffs.
Challenge
The mentioned carder was trained to address the following issues which possess a challenge during outbreak of any disease of public health importance, including Zoonotic diseases.
- Limited capacity of cross- border disease control and surveillance was a challenge
- No preparedness and response plans for cross-border
- The cross-border initiatives existing in the zone covering HIV/AIDS and Zoonotic/Animal health emergency response that are not documented for follow up actions
- Communication channels from central to districts for outbreaks and other emergencies which may delay actions.
Initiatives
Development of Disease preparedness and Response Plans for the cross-border areas. Lesotho strengthened the capacity for disease response with particular reference to district teams, border/crossing point teams, health facilities, communities and other stakeholders in the border region through among others IDSR Training was held. Use of informal communication between cross border teams on urgent matters of public health concern was put in place. Moreover Consensus was reached and established on social media platform for communication of critical information and regular engagement among the cross- border team members.
Key results and out comes
Focal Nurse for the districts based in the hospital to speed up the admissions processes on emergency issues has been identified to shorten the waiting period of client for services.
Good monitoring of disease trends shall be the good results of the above workshop followed by proper surveillance systems. The timely reporting of events and better data banking shall be of good quality results.
