Government developing surveillance system to track human, animal diseases

The government plans to build a national surveillance system to track diseases in both humans and animals.

Speaking during the launch of the Digital Health Training Institute on Tuesday, Minister of Health Dr Frank Anthony announced that the new platform will allow authorities to monitor infectious and non-communicable diseases in real-time.

He said it would strengthen the country’s ability to respond to emerging health threats rapidly.

“We have been better at doing infectious diseases, but we now want to have a combined system where we can track both infectious and noncommunicable diseases across this country, and so we can see real-time data and what is happening in the country,” he announced.

Similarly, the ministry is partnering with the Ministry of Agriculture to track animal diseases.

“So, if there is a disease in the animal platform that we feel may have the potential to jump into the human population, then we must be able to detect these outbreaks early,” Minister Anthony said.

Data from both ministries will be shared on a single platform. Minister Anthony said the integrated surveillance system will be financed through the Pandemic Fund and the World Bank. The initiative is expected to be developed within the next three to five years.