Public health emergencies: Multisectoral stakeholders equipped for better response.

This was within the framework of a workshop organised by Public Health Emergency Operations Centre, PHEOC, a body with the coordination of information and resources to support incident management activities.

The training which started since March 2024 ended on Friday August 30. It brought together the different sectors that are in charge of public health emergency, including representatives of the Ministry of Public Health, Ministry of Livestock, Fisheries and Animal Industries, Ministry of Environment, Nature Protection and Sustainable Development.

Officials from Governor’s Offices and City Councils amongst other actors were also present. 

According to the Program Coordinator, Elizabeth Ebongue, the training was necessary because during previous responses in other public health emergency situations, some errors were observed especially in the coordination, management of resources. 

She indicated that response should involve many sectors and the best way to make them work together is to teach them be better prepared to detect and respond to public health threats.

This, Ebongue underlined, can mitigate the impact devastating impact on people’s lives and well-being

She said the training had as goal, to strengthen system resilience, enhance intersectoral coordination, promoting sustainable public health, ensure immediate action during public health emergencies.

It is was also aimed at developing specialised skills for crisis management on the ground, empowering regions to independently handle emergency situations

Enter SW Regional Delegate of Public Health

Speaking at the close of the training, the Regional Delegate of Public Health for the South West Region, Dr Eko Eko Filbert, noted that these challenges are complex and cannot be effectively addressed by one sector alone. 

A holistic, multisectoral and multidisciplinary approach is needed for addressing gaps and advancing coordination for health emergency preparedness and health security and is essential for the implementation of the International Health Regulations

Dr Eko Eko said the training has thus given a framework of multi-sectorial engagement. He said emergencies such as cholera and COVID-19 warrants that every stakeholder should come in especially when concepts of operation have been developed. 

“The first response technique, experts emphasised is collaboration, develop a common incident action plan, such that each sector will be led to attain the objectives of response with the incident management system drafted depending on the complexity of the event,” he said. 

To him, through the workshop, many came to understand that it’s not only the responsibility of the ministry of public health to manage events as all sectors have parts to play. 

However, regions have incidents specific to them which stakeholders should have a projection of the emergency response to employ when need arises. For the South West Region, the public health experts are forecasting responses in case of the eruption of the Mount Cameroon. 

It should be noted that the active volcano lasty erupted some 20 years ago and scientists suggest, such could occur every 25 years 

“In this case, we are already above 20 years, so we don’t need to wait and be surprised. The stakeholders need to derive multi-hazard preparation plan to mitigate hazards specific to the South West Region such as mountain eruption and floods,” Dr Eko Eko said.

At the end of the day, participants shared the opinion that the training will improve collaboration amongst stakeholders. 

One of them, Gwendoline Mangwi, from the regional service of veterinary in the South West Region, said after five months of training, they are upbeat that incident management system, risk assessment and simulation exercises, collaboration, communication and coordination in emergency management in the South West Region will improve.

This story was first published in The Guardian Post issue N0:3218 of Tuesday September 03, 2024