EAC deploys experts to DRC, Burundi to boost vigilance, response to Mpox outbreaks
The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development is backing the bloc in the training of experts and equipping them with medical supplies and personal protective gear.
SUNDAY November 3, 2024
By Patty Magubira
The Tranquility News Reporter, Tanzania
The East African Community (EAC) has flagged off its first cohort of skilled emergency experts to Democratic Republic of the Congo and Burundi to respond to outbreaks of virus diseases in the two partner states that are fraught with Ebola and Mpox.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) alone reported 7,000 confirmed cases by end of October 2024, 40 per cent of them being children aged below 15 years.
The Health Ministry of Southern Kivu Province in eastern DRC, where outbreaks were initially reported, had asked for support from the German epidemic preparedness team – SEEG.
The skilled emergency experts will build on the SEEG mission deployed in June this year to respond to ongoing Mpox outbreak that has spread to Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda since.
Dubbed Rapidly Deployable Experts (RDE) pool, with over 140 experts drawn from the EAC partner states, the skilled emergency experts will serve as overseers of regional public health and cross-border outbreak responses along with the region’s key partners of choice.
Thanks to the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) through its Corporation for International Cooperation – GIZ – for supporting the training of the experts and equipping them with medical supplies and personal protective equipment.
The experts are also trained in risk communication strategies and laboratory diagnosis skills in the training of trainers to enhance capacities of health workers and communities to respond to Mpox and other virus diseases.
The RDE pool passed a maiden tabletop simulation exercise in Nairobi, Kenya, in June this year. The exercise aimed at testing the pool’s deployment mechanisms to ascertain if they conform with continental and regional outbreak frameworks.
The decision to build the pool of skilled emergency experts to prevent virus disease outbreaks from frustrating health and ongoing integration agenda is in line with the 2019 approval of the EAC Council of Ministers of Health.
The Council of Ministers of Health believe the decision will enhance preparedness and responses basing on lessons learnt from West Africa Ebola outbreak in 2014/15.
“These outbreaks pose substantial challenges to our health systems and affect our economics and livelihoods more broadly,” EAC Secretary General Veronica Nduva, said during the ceremony held at the seat of the bloc in Arusha, Tanzania, last week.
The ongoing public health emergency due to Mpox as well as the parallel outbreak of Marburg virus disease, often spreading from animal to human, reflected continuous movement of people and goods, she said.
BMZ Head of Division for East Africa Marcus von Essen said Germany had for over 25 years been supporting the EAC mandate of regional economic integration.
“For which it is necessary that goods and people can cross borders smoothly, goods and people, not diseases,” stressed von Essen, highlighting the need for responding to pandemic outbreaks collectively, as the infectious diseases were ignorant of borders.
Indeed, high on the EAC integration agenda is facilitating free movement of goods, persons, labour, services, capital and rights of establishment and residence across the region.
However, recurrent outbreaks of Ebola, Mpox, Marbug, Measles, Bird Flu and VOCID-19 disrupt socio-economic and political stability, and hence, retarding the integration process.
The RDE pool, which is set for expansion in the near future, is billed to mark a new era in health emergency response capabilities in the region.
BMZ has, through KFW, established 10 mobile labs valued at EUR 25 million across the East African region to provide rapid diagnostic capacity, essential for containing outbreaks.
The labs were instrumental during the widespread of COVID-19 pandemic, 2022 Ebola outbreak in Uganda, and 2023 Marburg outbreak in Tanzania.
The BMZ focus is on providing diagnostic kits for Mpox and Marburg viruses and deploying mobile labs at key locations to enhance laboratory testing capacities.
Furthermore, BMZ has, through GIZ, enhanced the risk and crisis communication at the regional level and established 43 water, sanitation and hygiene facilities at border posts.
It has also carried out awareness campaign programmes and training sessions for health workers at airports, border posts and ports to improve infection prevention and inform East Africans and tourists on health-related risks.
The surge in pandemics is, among others, blamed on rising travel and integration globally, urbanisation, changes in land use, and overexploitation of the natural environmentΩ
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The Tranquility News Reporter/Sub Editor, Tanzania
Patty Magubira is an experienced environmental and business editor whose career started at the Tanzania's state-owned newspaper - The Daily News. He is a man of perfection. Aided by his extensive training as a community forestry expert before joining Tanzania School of Journalism. Magubira had successfully held various key posts in newsrooms, giving him an unmatched connections in media fraternity. Having worked as a bureau chief in Arusha and Mwanza, he managed to build a team work, boosting sales to the highest level ever. He was then promoted to a sub-editor after completing a training in Nairobi, Kenya. His incredible experience, critical thinking and exposure are critical to the quality of any media outlet.
