A five-week training on infectious diseases management has opened in Accra to improve the competencies of biomedical staff and facilitate orientation into new and emerging laboratory technology in West Africa.
The training is being organized by the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research and the Japan International Cooperation Agency for healthcare professionals from Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and Benin.
The rest are Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, and Togo. The training seeks to promote advanced laboratory management, among participating countries while enhancing laboratory skills and research to contain the COVID-19 pandemic and prevent other emerging diseases in future.
Participants will be taught best laboratory practices, latest innovations and technologies in Virology, Bacteriology and Parasitology, as well as biosafety, biosecurity, Quality Management Systems advanced diagnostics and monitoring of infectious diseases.
Director of the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, Professor Abraham Anang, said there is an urgent need to strengthen the sub-regions preparedness towards the fight against emerging and reemerging diseases. He said following the emergence of Ebola and COVID-19, which have led to the loss of lives and negatively impacted socio-economic activities, it is important to develop the abilities of healthcare workers to manage life-threatening infections.
Chief Representative of JICA- Ghana, Araki Yasumichi, said the training, which is the third, with the first and second organized in 2019 and 2020, would help the health system to be more responsive. He said the Japanese Government would continue to support Ghana’s efforts at actualizing quality and accessible Universal Healthcare.
