As we begin 2023, the world remains to be grappling with the direct and oblique results of the COVID-19 pandemic. Looking back, the pandemic examined Ethiopia’s well being system like no different problem in latest historical past and amplified its present strengths and weaknesses. The disaster additionally gave us a possibility to rebuild our system with new insights, gained from the response to this once-in-a-generation pandemic.
I used to be appointed as Minister of Well being in Ethiopia the day our well being system detected the primary COVID-19 case within the nation, 70 days after the primary case was detected in Wuhan. Two to 3 months following this, we observed a major decline within the utilization of important well being providers like vaccines, antenatal care, HIV care, and others. The Ministry’s identification and consciousness of this worrying pattern was made attainable by our District Well being Info System, which enabled well being officers to plan for—and execute—mitigation measures together with non-visit care by teleconsulting; multi-month shelling out; and powerful efficient group monitoring. These measures helped Ethiopia to be among the many few African nations which have maintained important well being providers in the course of the pandemic.
Nevertheless, there have been additionally pitfalls and classes for enchancment. The well being system was conscious of solely a proportion of the circumstances and deaths from COVID-19, although the Authorities quickly expanded testing websites from zero to 85, in lower than six months. Throughout these first few months, we carried out strict public well being and social distancing measures that have been being advisable globally and utilized by many nations within the area. We quarantined travellers, contacts, and suspects in well being services, colleges, and different public services and admitted all optimistic circumstances. In hindsight, there was already group unfold by the point we have been implementing these interventions, making our response ineffective and fewer applicable for the stage of the outbreak. We additionally rapidly discovered that we didn’t have the bodily infrastructure, nor the assets required for isolating hundreds of individuals and needed to make a shift.
As I look ahead to 2023, I single out two precedence funding areas which might be required to construct a extra resilient system that will probably be higher geared up to deal with future well being shocks.
Investing in well being info programs that generate individual-level affected person information ought to be a precedence in 2023. This can help important registration efforts, allow contact tracing, evaluation of the standard of care, and supply near-real time consequence information to information the well being system with proof.
Investing in a robust main well being care (PHC) offering numerous care. Ethiopia has prioritized funding in PHC, however up to now, most of those investments have been narrowly targeted on stopping and treating infectious illnesses and maternal and childhood sicknesses and solely lately expanded to noncommunicable illnesses (NCDs). Nevertheless, so as to reply successfully to future outbreaks, our PHC ought to have the capability to deal with a broader vary of well being challenges like NCDs, psychological well being, emergencies, and others. The advantages of group outreach by house-to-house surveillance by well being extension staff, was additionally a useful lesson to proceed investing in group well being for a robust PHC.