Mozambique: HCM opens new centre for scientific research and health training - Watch
The ministers of Health from Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe have signed an agreement committing them to design and implement a comprehensive and coordinated response together on their borders, in halting the transmission of cholera and malaria in the three countries, APA can report on Wednesday. The three countries are members of the Southern African Development Community, SADC, and share common borders.
The deal was formalised on Wednesday at the end of cross-border meeting held in Mozambique’s western province of Tete, hosted by Mozambique’s Minister of Health, Nazira Abdula, her Zimbabwean counterpart David Parirenyatwa, and Malawi’s ambassador to Mozambique, Frank Viyazhi.
The meeting, supported by the World Health Organisation (WHO), highlights the need to improve the management of public health emergencies with a focus on cholera and malaria at border crossings of the three countries; as well as reverse the epidemiological situation in border districts.
Also within the framework of the meeting, the countries committed to developing recommendations to strengthen epidemiological surveillance and response to priority endemic diseases in border areas, according to a WHO media statement emailed to APA.
Malaria and diarrheal diseases, including cholera, are a major public health problem in the region. Since January, the three countries have collectively reported more than four million cases of the disease with 949 deaths.
Cholera originated over two thousand cases with seven deaths. Typhoid fever caused 13,016 episodes and resulted in five deaths.
Because of the large movement of people at the frontiers for socio-economic reasons, the epidemiological situation of malaria and diarrheal diseases, including cholera and other communicable diseases, has been experiencing a significant deterioration.
The media release said the three countries must develop a coordinated cross-border research agenda to fill gaps in knowledge, improve the selection and prioritisation of interventions, and identify innovative strategies to improve the epidemiological situation in the three countries.
The three countries also committed to establishing a Working Group and developing the standard procedures for community surveillance and institutional epidemiological surveillance, as well as creating a mechanism for sharing data among them.
The WHO representative in Mozambique, Djamila Cabral, called for greater inter-sectoral coordination and collaboration, as well as the implementation of joint actions, to ensure positive results in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
Staff from the three countries’ ministries of health and WHO, as well as representatives from other partners attended the meeting.
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