New COVID-19 Trackers in South Sudan Will Help Manage the Next Disease Outbreak

By Acaga Taban Ismail, Former strategic information manager, IntraHealth InternationalDecember 14, 2022South Sudan has experienced numerous disease outbreaks before and after its independence in 2011, which have ranged from mild to severe. The South Sudan Ministry of Health continues to face several challenges managing and providing timely responses to emerging health threats.An underlying reason for this is the country’s shortage of health workers at the national and subnational levels. This is compounded by an untrained health workforce and a lack of data for informed decision-making. Many health workers don’t have up-to-date training and cannot provide high-quality health care while information management processes can’t provide enough data for health workers to effectively manage disease outbreaks. Over 68% of the health workers that manage data and information at national and subnational levels are volunteers. Over 72% of the counties transmitting pandemic and health management information system (HMIS) data have limited internet connectivity and unstable power. There is also a scarcity of functional hardware (computers and accessories) at the county and facility level to support timely data collection and use.When COVID-19 began to spread, South Sudan invested in better surveillance and vaccine systems to help manage the country ' s pandemic response. IntraHealth International partnered with the Ministry of Health to provide financial and techni...
Source: IntraHealth International - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Infectious Diseases COVID-19 Digital Health Global health security Source Type: news