WHO and Kenya launch medical emergency hub in Nairobi
pharmafile | July 11, 2022 | News story | Sales and Marketing |
WHO and the Kenyan government have launched an emergency hub for public health risks in the country’s capital and largest city, Nairobi. This hub is expected to be the first in a network of centres in the continent of Africa aiming to hasten responses to regional emergencies.
“We see the continent expressing in very practical terms its determination to be better prepared for the next pandemic,” commented WHO’s regional director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti. “This is going to be our contribution to helping countries build their capacity to be much better prepared, and better able to respond.”
The facility will include a training centre, will house a team of professionals to respond to a medical emergency within the first 24 hours of its emergence, and will also store stockpiles of medical equipment.
According to WHO statistics, Africa experiences over 100 health emergencies per year, more than any other region in the world. The global health body is currently monitoring events including the highly infectious Marburg virus in Ghana, measles in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and cholera in Cameroon, alongside COVID-19 and monkeypox, throughout the continent.
Also complicating public health are factors such as floods, droughts, and conflict, many of which are on the rise in much of the region.
Moeti elaborated: “All this needs very solid preparations, so that when things happen that are going to trigger an increase in vulnerability to disease and illness, the national systems are ready to manage that.”
WHO has shared that it wants to help create such quick response teams in every African country. Kenya will become a regional hub for medical equipment, which with help neighbouring countries receive required medicines faster.
Ana Ovey
