Deputy Minister of Health and Sanitation, Dr. Anthony Augustine Sandi has opened a two-day Scientific Meeting and Leadership Workshop of the Sierra Leone-China Second Phase of the Fixed Biological Safety Laboratory Technical Cooperation Project on Wednesday June 6, 2018 at the Bintumani Hotel in Freetown.
The three years project from 2017–2020 aims to support the establishment of public health system in Sierra Leone including disease surveillance and laboratory examination and improve Sierra Leone’s prevention and control of major infectious diseases. The project is funded by the government of China, and implemented in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation.
Speaking at the opening ceremony, Dr. Anthony Augustine Sandi said the bilateral relationship between Sierra Leone and China has existed for decades and it’s one that is beneficial to the two countries.
He said China has made significant contribution to improving the health sector, adding that they have built and are assisting the management of the Jui hospital, flying in specialists to work alongside their doctors and nurses, providing scholarship to Sierra Leoneans to train as medical doctors and specialists in various fields of medicine.
Dr. Sandi said project seeks to enhance Sierra Leone’s capacity for infectious diseases prevention and control and early-warning by supporting the development of disease surveillance and laboratory system. He described the project as another milestone in the country’s progress towards resilience against infectious diseases and improvement of the public health system.
He said the Ebola disease outbreak in Sierra Leone in 2014 precipitated the need for a holistic overhauling of the health sector with emphasizes on the improvement of the public health system and training of public health personnel in epidemiology and laboratory.
The Chinese Ambassador, Wu Peng said since 2014, China CDC has assigned 40 public health professionals to Sierra Leone, dedicated to helping the country with disease surveillance, lab testing and capacity building regarding Ebola and other major infectious diseases.
He said the first phase of this project has built a fixed P3 laboratory, which has been playing an important role in detection, prevention and control of Ebola and other major infectious diseases.
Ambassador Peng stated that the second phase which focuses on personnel training and capacity building will further facilitate Sierra Leonean disease surveillance system building, research capacity improvement and prepare local medical experts for the future.
The Director of Center for Global Public Health Dr. Dong Xiaoping maintained that China CDC is working in 51 countries in Africa.
He went on to say that the thrust of the project is to support national surveillance and early warning of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases.
The project will support syndromic surveillance for fever and diarrhea and to also conduct environmental water and vector surveillance in western area.