IPNews-Monrovia,Liberia-February 21, 2018: The National Public Health Institute of Liberia (NPHIL) will Wednesday, February 21, 2018 begin a 3-day Annual Review of the National Public Health Institute of Liberia (NPHIL).The Annual Review runs from February 21-23, 2018, in Buchanan City, Grand Bassa County,
According to a NPHIL release, the theme of the Review is “Strengthening Evidence Based Public Health – A Clarion Call to National Duty”.
The release noted that, the retreat will provide a comprehensive review of the Institute’s achievements in 2017; align stakeholders and donors around a shared set of lessons learned in building a resilient health system; and set priorities for 2018.The meeting is sponsored by the World Health Organization (WHO) through NPHIL.
Meanwhile, the annual event will highlight presentations, panel and plenary deliberations from various Divisions of NPHIL and partners, ranging from Surveillance, Epidemic and Preparedness, Training and Capacity Building, among others. At the end of the meeting, key action points to address current situations and focus for 2018 will be developed.
The event will bring together senior management and technical team of the National Public Health Institute, Ministry of Health (MOH), Ministry of Finance and Development Planning (MFDP),Health Committee of the 54th National Legislature, World Health Organization (WHO), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), United Nation Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Food Agriculture Organization (FAO), GesellschaftfürInternationaleZusammenarbeit GIZ), U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S CDC) and the World Bank.
Over a year since NPHIL was enacted by an Act of Legislation passed by the 53rd Legislature in Dec 2016; signed by Former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and printed into handbill January 26, 2017. The Institute was created as a result of the unprecedented Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) in West Africa that claimed the lives of more than 11,000 people and infected more than 28,000.
The National Public Health Institute was created to coordinates and strengthens disease detection, outbreak investigation, develops and builds public health workforce and other public health functions. The Institute also prevents and controls public health threats while creating a center of excellence for better health outcomes.
It can be recalled, that the last 12 months have been characterized by unprecedented achievements notably the construction of new headquarters, Regional Laboratories, speedy testing of 11 infectious diseases, the establishment and effective functioning of reference laboratory, and training of 250 field epidemiologists in 73 districts across Liberia’s 15 counties.
The NPHIL also noted its ability to have responded effectively and efficiently to 50 clusters of outbreaks that led to adverting thousands of deaths – owing to diseases including measles, Lassa fever, Ebola, meningitis, etc.; increased and mobilized domestic and external financing to support the work of the institute in the next 2 to 3 years; succeeded in establishing sustainable partnership with international organizations like the United States Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the World Health Organization (WHO), United states Department of Defense (USDOD), US Agency for international Development (USAID), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), National Institute of Health (NIH), International Association of Public Health Institute (IANPHI), African CDC, Nigeria CDC and the West African Health Organization (WAHO). The NPHIL is also collaborating with the African Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET) – in the area of training field Epidemiology at basics, intermediate and subsequently advanced levels.
NPHIL has also effectively embarked on water quality and food testing initiatives aimed at reducing food and water borne diseases. There is an ongoing construction of the national water quality testing laboratory, as well as, upgrading of human capacity in environmental and occupational health to improve environmental and occupational hazard detection and reduction.
