By; SADIQ ABUBAKAR, Maiduguri
World Health Organization (WHO) has organized a 5-day training workshop on Emergency Coordination/Preparedness Response for 98 Public Health Emergency personnel drawn from the 27 local government areas, development partners and public health organizations of Borno State at Pinnacle Luxury Hotel Banquet Hall Maiduguri from May 7 to 11, 2023.
The Borno State Commissioner for Health, Professor Mohammed Alhaji Arab who was ably represented by the Director Public Health, Borno State Ministry of Health, Dr Goni Abba in his opening speech, acknowledged the presence of everyone in attendance and encouraged the participants to pay close attention throughout the training to build more capacity in managing emergencies of public health incidents in the state.
The Director, Public Health charged the participants to be attentive throughout the training and encouraged the participants to link up with their colleagues who were yet to be present at the training workshop after introduction of the facilitators and participants.
According to him, the participants were selected from the heirarchy of Directors PHC, LGCs PHC Survielance Notification
Officers and Laboratory Technicians / Lab Technical Assistants.
The WHO Emergency Operation Center (EOC) Manager, Dr Simon Manuel on behalf of the North East Emergency Manager, Dr Beatrice Muraguri appreciated the state team and the National Center for Disease Control ( NCDC) team for their continued support to the state.
She also recognized the efforts of the state team for their resilience in managing public health threats in the state, while advising the participants to be committed and make good use of the training opportunity to refresh their knowledge on public health emergency management as well as to replicate the knowledge at their LGAs
Dr Beatrice acknowledged the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) for their support in ensuring the objective of the training is achieved.
She further welcomed the participants on behalf of the Director General, NCDC, Mrs Sylvia Ezenwa-Ahanene
The WHO North East Emergency Manager also encouraged them to take advantage of the training and make proper use of the opportunity to develop themselves for effective emergency coordination response of outbreaks at the state and LGA levels.
According to her, the training is aimed at achieving and ensuring that the participants are able to demonstrate mastery of the PHEOC terminologies, are able to apply the PHEOC modes of operation appropriately and clearly understand IMS( incident management system)
Others include to ensure that the participants are able to enumerate and explain response management principles used during an emergency response, able to list and develop emergency management documents used during a response.
She however, said that the targeted participants were drawn from local government disease, surveillance and notification officers, state surveillance officers, LGA DSNOs, laboratory focal persons and directors of PHCs
While three persons per LGA across the 27 LGAs, 10 persons from the state capital and 10 partner, totalling 98.
