By Chimezie Godfrey
The Director General, West African Health Organisation (WAHO), Professor Stanley Okolo has called for the strengthening of the capacity and resilience of the ECOWAS Regional Centre for Surveillance and Disease Control (RCSDC) against epidemics and other health emergencies in the region.
Okolo made the call during the 7th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the ECOWAS Regional Centre for Surveillance & Disease Control (RCSDC) held on Thursday in Abuja.
He noted that in recent years, an average of 40 new outbreaks of emerging and re-emerging diseases such as Ebola, Marburg, COVID-19, Monkeypox have been recorded in ECOWAS.
He therefore called for synergy to strengthen the capacity of the RCSDC in prevention of infectious diseases and resilience against epidemics, and other health emergencies in the region.
He said,”This, if it were still necessary, highlights the need to continue to strengthen the capacity of the RCSDC to achieve the objective for which it was created – To strengthen capacities for surveillance, disease prevention, response and resilience to epidemics and other health emergencies in the ECOWAS region.
“I thank the members of the Board of Directors and the representatives of the ECOWAS Member States present as well as those online for taking the time to be with us. This shows the importance you attach to the RCSDC and through the center, to the Western Organization.
“Created since May 2015 following a decision of the 47th Conference of Heads of State of ECOWAS, the Regional Center for Disease Surveillance and Control (CRSCM of ECOWAS) is a young tool but already very tested by recurrent epidemics and / or emerging.”
Okolo noted that a Board of Directors is very useful for good performance.
According to him, the inaugural meeting of its 1 st Board of Directors, held on June 27 and 28, 2016, made it possible to lay a solid foundation for its operation, adding that in accordance with the regulations, the board of directors should meet twice a year to review the activities carried out, reassure on the lessons learned and propose actions for the next steps of the work plan for the period.
“This meeting will therefore allow; to discuss updates on the epidemiological situation in West Africa and find out about the level of progress made from November 2021 to March 2023 in the CRSCM work plan.
“But also to identify the bottlenecks as well as the appropriate corrective measures to support the activities of the said center, and to plan the next steps as well as strengthen the structural and strategic operationalization of the CRSCM.
“If irreversible progress has been made in the context of health security in the ECOWAS region, it is far from sufficient. Unacceptable gaps remain within and between countries.
“We can no longer view health security as a cost, but rather as an investment that forms the foundation of our productive, resilient and inclusive economies and societies.
“For this, we would like to emphasize the establishment of a consolidated community approach and sensitive alert mechanisms for the early detection of the main threats.
“To this end, we should build on the existing strong and renewed partnerships to effectively prevent, detect and respond to public health events in West Africa,” he said.
The WAHO DG expressed that the hope that they would be able to come up with some fairly clear and actionable recommendations that would strengthen the role of the CRSCM in the ECOWAS region
He said,”I am hopeful that over the next few hours we will be able to come up with some fairly clear and actionable recommendations that will strengthen the role of the CRSCM in the ECOWAS region.
“I would also like to urge this Board of Directors to come up with new, bold and innovative, achievable and practical ideas to guide and support countries investing in health security for the benefit of our people.
“Sincere gratitude to all our partners and to the members of the Board of Directors of the CRSCM for their continued support.”
