5 WHO EXPERTS FOR ESWATINI COVID-19 FIGHT

MBABANE – The Kingdom of Eswatini is yet to reach its COVID-19 peak before the curve is flattened and WHO is looking to bring a team of five experts to help the country post reaching the peak.

These are experts who are qualified in five different fields and they will help government, through the Ministry of Health, in expertise of dealing with the pandemic pre and post COVID-19 peak in the country.

The experts are an epidemiologist, a laboratory strengthening officer, a risk communication officer, infection and prevention control officer and a medical surveillance officer. This was revealed by WHO Country Coordinator Dr Kevin Makadzange, who said the experts were expected to be in the country for the next three months at least and if their services were still required, their stay would be extended. He said everything would be taken care of by WHO, including accommodation and remuneration of the experts.

“We are actually building the team in the country office to support government on issues of surveillance, contact tracing, investigations and a whole lot of other aspects,” he submitted. The global health organisation has already posted, through its website, an advert where they are looking for a surveillance expert to support the Eswatini COVID-19 response.
Eswatini has reported 333 cases which translate to 280 cases per 100 000 population. The country has reported three deaths which gives a mortality rate of one per cent.

In its website, WHO stated that like many other countries in Africa and beyond, Eswatini no longer had sufficient national capacity to mount an adequate response to the pandemic.

The organisation is therefore deploying experts to member states, including Eswatini, as part of its surge capacity as enunciated in the WHO Emergency Response Framework and required by the International Health Regulations (2015) to support country COVID-19 pandemic responses.

“WHO is therefore seeking the services of an epidemiologist with expertise in surveillance to complement the capacity of the WHO Country Office in Eswatini and adequately support the National COVID-19 Response working with the National Incident Management team for an initial period of three months starting immediately or as soon as possible,” the organisation  said.  Makadzange said the other experts will be coming from other WHO regions or stations and they were expected to resume work as soon as possible.

supervision

Under the supervision of the WHO Country Representative for Eswatini, the epidemiologist is expected to work with the Eswatini Ministry of Health Incident Management Team to support activities that include providing technical expertise to guide implementation of surveillance and investigation activities on respiratory infectious disease specific activities related to COVID-19.

Support the nation level, regions and local levels on case investigation, field assessments and surveillance in field as needed, ensure that contact tracing is effectively done, regularly share updated surveillance data, assist in data collation and analysis, and facilitate its use for decision-making.

The expert is also expected to work with the team on reporting requirements, information system and data management needs, type and frequency of data analysis, and design as needed and guide and contribute to the development and release of regular Situation Reports, assist to build the capacity and orient teams on relevant surveillance interventions in line with WHO and national guidelines and SOPs, support capacity building efforts at national, regionsand local levels, support documentation of best practices in surveillance and other relevant areas, and facilitate their dissemination and use.

The expert should have a medical degree or basic training in epidemiology, with a post-graduate degree in Public Health majoring in epidemiology and at least 3 years’ experience in epidemiology, especially in the area of surveillance, experience working in emergencies, especially in outbreak and epidemic control, experience working on COVID-19 epidemiology and surveillance would be an added advantage.

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