Angola Newswire

The World Health Organization has reiterated its commitment to helping the Government of Ghana achieve its set target for the COVID-19 vaccine rollout by presenting 1 000 pieces of digital tablets to support the ongoing vaccination campaign.

Presenting the items to the Ghana Health Service, Dr Sally-Ann Ohene, Disease Prevention and Control Officer at the World Health Organization Ghana Country Office said the tablets were to be used to scale up e-registration at the various vaccination centres and help reduce delays in data entry.

“With funding support from the Government of Canada, WHO Ghana plans to present additional 500 digital tablets to the Ghana Health Service”, Dr Ohene hinted.

The Programme Manager for the Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) at the Ghana Health Service, Dr Kwame Amponsa-Achiano, who received the items on behalf of the Ghana Health Service, expressed appreciation to the kind gesture.

Dr Amponsa-Achiano stated that the donation of the tablets was very timely and would be deployed immediately to the field for use in the ongoing vaccination campaign.

The digital tablets are anticipated to be useful for data capturing in other health interventions beyond the COVID-19 pandemic.

Source: World Health Organization. Africa

Brazzaville/Kinshasa – Ebola vaccination began today in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s North Kivu Province where a case was confirmed on 8 October. People at high risk, including contacts of the confirmed case and first responders will receive the doses as the health authorities move to curb the spread of the virus.

The confirmed case was a two-year old boy who died on 6 October in a local health facility. He lived in the same community where three members of the same family died in September after experiencing Ebola-like symptoms.

About 1000 doses of the rVSV-ZEBOV Ebola vaccine and other medical supplies were delivered from the capital Kinshasa to Goma city in North Kivu and around 200 doses were sent onward to Beni city, which is near the Butsili health area where the confirmed case was detected. Vaccinators are using the “ring vaccination” approach, where contacts and contacts of contacts are vaccinated. The Democratic Republic of the Congo has more than 12 000 vaccine doses in Kinshasa that can be deployed if necessary.

“Ebola is a virulent, lethal virus that can spread aggressively and fast. But vaccines can create a firewall of protection around cases, stopping the chain of transmission, averting a potentially large outbreak and saving many lives,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Director for Africa. “The Democratic Republic of the Congo is spearheading the efforts to halt this latest Ebola resurgence, banking on expertise built in responding to previous outbreaks.”

In addition to organizing vaccination activities, emergency response teams are working around the clock to trace contacts, decontaminate infected spaces and step up surveillance and testing. Already, more than 170 contacts have been identified and teams are monitoring their health. To support the national authorities in the response efforts, WHO has released US$ 200 000 through its Contingency Fund for Emergencies. WHO is also in the process of shipping five tons worth of response supplies, including therapeutics, personal protective equipment and laboratory materials.

Among the first members of the 15-person WHO surge team deployed to Beni is an expert in the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse. The expert will brief WHO employees and partners on how to prevent any inappropriate and abusive behaviour. The expert will also work with local non-governmental organizations to sensitize communities on sexual abuse and how to report it.

Beni was one of the epicentres of the 2018–2020 Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo and is about 50 km from Butembo city which experienced a new Ebola outbreak earlier this year. Sporadic cases can occur following a major outbreak, but further genomic sequencing is needed to determine if this latest case is linked to the previous outbreaks. The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s National Institute of Biomedical Research’s main laboratory in Kinshasa is currently testing samples of the confirmed case to identify the strain and results are expected this week.

Source: World Health Organization. Africa

Mauritius marked the World Mental Health Day 2021 under the theme “Mental Health in an Unequal World” on 09 October 2021 at Mahebourg Hospital in the presence of the Minister of Health and Wellness, Dr Hon. Kailesh Kumar Singh Jagutpal, the Private Parliamentary Secretary, Mrs T. Jutton, the Member of Parliament, Mr R. Doolub, the World Health Organization Representative in Mauritius, Dr L. Musango, and other personalities, including the health personnel of the Mahebourg Hospital.

Dr Hon. Jagutpal, in his address, said that mental health has always been associated to stigma. He added, “93 000 patients and more than 3200 people have been admitted at the Brown Sequard Mental Hospital in 2020 in Mauritius.” The Minister of Health and Wellness emphasized the fact that children too suffer from mental health problems and 224 patients suffering from mental health problems under the age of 18 have been admitted for treatment last year.

Globally 450 million people suffer from mental health issues while more than 700 000 people suffer from a mental health ailment including suicide.

“12 psychologists and 24 psychiatrists have been recruited in view of strengthening the national mental health services and necessary resources have been mobilized for recruitment of additional psychologists to be posted in the different Ministries”, said Dr Hon Jagutpal.

Mauritius has decentralized the psychiatric services across all the regional hospitals to reach a greater number of people island wise. The same services are gradually being implemented at the level of the Mediclinics. The Ministry of Health and Wellness is also focusing on the training of health personnel in view of improving the quality of mental health care.

“The COVID-19 pandemic did not only have a medical impact but has also had an impact on people’s mental health”, said Dr Hon. Jagutpal.

Dr Laurent Musango, the WHO Representative in Mauritius, advocated for the development of a national mental health strategy in line with the WHO’s Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2030, recently endorsed by the World Health Assembly. He added that concerted actions are needed to promote mental health and well-being for all and prevent mental health conditions for those at risk and achieve universal coverage for mental health services.

“The World Mental Health Day should not be limited to sensitization programme. It should instead be an opportunity to empower people to care for their own mental health and better support those suffering from mental health problems,” said Dr Musango.

“Depression is one of the main mental health problems globally while one out of seven people aged 10 to 19 years old is suffering from mental health problems around the world. It is thus importance to detect cases of mental health problems for appropriate treatment”, added Dr Musango. Many of the mental health problems such as depression, anxiety and schizophrenia can be treated successfully.

“We need to address the increasing demand for mental health services, especially with the COVID-19 pandemic and work towards reducing stigmatization associated to mental health, discrimination and human rights issues”, said the WHO Representative, who congratulated the Dr Hon Jagutpal for prioritizing mental health on the national health agenda and for mobilizing the necessary resources in view of strengthening the national mental health programme. Investing in mental health not only impact positive not only on health but also on economy and society in general.

Other speakers stressed on the need to eradicate stigmatization and stereotypes associated with mental health issues. The population should be sensitized on the mental health services available and how to detect mental health problems in the family for timely treatment.

The Ministry of Health and Wellness and WHO collaborated jointly to produce five pamphlets on different mental health issues, namely depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, suicide prevention and bipolar disorder. The pamphlets launched on this occasion will be distributed widely to sensitize the population on mental health problems and where to look for support.

Source: World Health Organization. Africa

It was a normal day for 62-year-old Hajara A.M., full of life queuing to get her free medication at Herwa Peace Primary Health Care Center (PHC) in Maiduguri, Borno state.

Hajara, a patient with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) could not hide her excitement upon meeting the World Health Organization (WHO) sponsored team who provided technical support and medication for mental health patients. “If not for this programme, (referring to the WHO intervention) and free medication I have been receiving, I would not have been here talking to you today. Due to their intervention, I have become completely sane now and fully recovered” she says.

“When I first I went to the WHO clinic I was given: a combination of medicines and psychotherapy. Since then, I have met regularly with a psychologist. I am now ok and I am working as a domestic maid to earn a living.”

Narrating her ordeal, Hajara stated that “in 2015, my world fell to pieces. Many painful and complicated events from insurgency resulted in episodes of psychosis, which shattered me. All my inner resources ran out and I wished I had never been born. I considered committing suicide, I didn’t know where I was or what I was doing, I could not sleep nor eat.”

“My sister’s husband was killed by the Insurgents at Doron Baga, Borno state in my presence, I could not bear it. Just when I thought I had seen it all, my younger brother, who was 33 years old was also killed, the killing of my two daughters followed and that almost made me lose my mind. We were forced out of Doron Baga with nothing, our houses burnt, our animals killed and our belongings confiscated by the insurgents.” Immensely affected by the insurgency, residents were forced to relocate to other parts of Borno, including Maiduguri

Baga is approximately 196 km from Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State. The “Doron Baga” fish market is located about six kilometers from the town. Baga lies on the border of Lake Chad and was a fishing center itself in the 1960s and 1970s, but the diminishing size of the lake had caused fishermen to move away, and others had turned to subsistence farming.

“Upon my arrival in Maiduguri in 2017, some good Samaritans took me to a psychiatric hospital as my condition was worsening. I was diagnosed with PTSD, but could not afford the medications, so I was forced to continue living with the condition.”

In October 2020, we came across some strangers that told me about a clinic that gives free consultation and medications to people living with mental health conditions here in Maiduguri. It is a Primary Health Care Center (PHC) named Herwa Peace center.

“When I was taken there, I didn’t know what I was doing, but I knew I had gone to the right place. Whenever I go for a consultation, I felt safe staying at the PHC rather than at home and was treated with care and understanding. The professionals counseled me and made me forget all my problems. We had serious conversations and they made me understand there is more to life than the thoughts of suicide. And within three weeks into my journey, I was sane, able to sleep, and had hope in life”

Due to insurgency in North-Eastern Nigeria, the population’s mental health needs were significantly increased, local mental health care resources are grossly inadequate. Relying solely on these local mental health resources to provide services for people affected by mental, neurological and substance use (MNS) disorders would prevent a large number of people from accessing the services they need.

To this end, WHO with funding from European Union (EU), USAID and Nigerian Humanitarian Fund (NHF) then included mental health care in its response and came up with a practical way of scaling up mental health care at the community levels in rural and hard to reach areas, and exercising its mandate to provide a comprehensive health care package to the vulnerable population.

From September 2017, 64 low cadre PHC workers were trained on how to deal with mental health patients using the WHO recommended mental health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP). So far, 547 PHC workers have been trained on mhGAP interventions and are being mentored on mental health care by psychiatric nurses conducting outreach care services. Over 90,000 patients with mental disorders have benefitted, with about 64% stable and coming for follow-up care while 36% are coming as new patients.

This support has led to the promotion of mental health, which is crucial to the overall wellbeing, functioning, and resilience of populations recovering from emergencies.

Source: World Health Organization. Africa