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Tanzania, WHO step up preparedness against epidemic diseases

5 mins read

Tanzania, WHO step up preparedness against epidemic diseases

Habari za Dharura

October 31, 2026 Admin0

Mbeya. Tanzania, in collaboration with the World Health Organisation (WHO), has developed strategies to strengthen health experts’ capacity to detect early signs of epidemic diseases, protect themselves and prevent infections from spreading into the country.

The initiative aims to improve preparedness at health facilities, particularly in areas with high levels of interaction between people from within and outside the country, ensuring patients showing signs of infectious diseases are identified early and receive treatment without putting healthcare workers and other citizens at risk.

The measures coincided with a five-day training programme for 35 experts from six health facilities in Mbeya Region, including the Regional Referral Hospital and Zonal Referral Hospital.

The training combined theoretical and practical sessions.

Speaking to The Citizen’s sister newspaper Mwananchi on Saturday, October 31, 2026, at the conclusion of the training, Ministry of Health Emergency Medicine Specialist, Dr Michael Kilemeji, said the initiative aimed to strengthen healthcare workers’ capacity as part of national preparations to tackle the disease.

He said the training focused on enabling experts to recognise and suspect signs of infectious diseases, take appropriate precautions and apply proper personal protection measures when attending to patients.

“We are ensuring our service delivery facilities possess the capacity to identify patients with signs of infectious diseases and use proper methods to protect themselves from infection,” he said.

Dr Kilemeji said the preparations were important because health facilities played a critical role in preventing disease transmission, as patients could seek medical attention without knowing they were carrying an infectious disease.

He explained that the government was continuing to strengthen surveillance and disease control systems at border points, including establishing mechanisms to collect information about people entering the country.

Mbeya a hub of vigilance

Explaining why Mbeya was selected for the training, Dr Kilemeji said the region was strategically positioned as a gateway to Southern African Development Community (Sadc) countries, including Malawi and Zambia.

He said the movement of people across borders and from different parts of the region made Mbeya one of the areas requiring stronger surveillance and infectious disease control systems.

“Mbeya Region is the gateway to Sadc and receives visitors from various nations. However, Tanzania is safe, but that state does not stop us from continuing to strengthen ourselves at airports, ports, official and unofficial borders,” he said.

He said the training brought together participants from councils across the region, with each council sending two experts who were expected to apply the knowledge acquired to improve preparedness in their respective areas.

WHO explains scale of threat

WHO representative Nemes Iliya said the organisation and the Ministry of Health had developed joint strategies to strengthen healthcare workers’ capacity to protect themselves and respond effectively to infectious diseases.

He said the spread of epidemic diseases across several African countries required governments to strengthen preparedness, surveillance and infection prevention and control systems.

He identified the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Uganda and Kenya among the countries affected by reported cases, adding that Nigeria had also reported one case.

“For the first time we have witnessed a disease spreading across more than four nations, including DRC, Uganda and now neighbouring Kenya, alongside a single case in Nigeria. This situation demonstrates the necessity for other countries to prepare,” he said.

He said the situation was a warning that infectious disease cases could emerge anywhere, making it essential to strengthen healthcare workers’ capacity from community level to referral hospitals.

Mr Iliya emphasised that the partnership between WHO and the government aimed to equip health experts with theoretical and practical knowledge on personal protection, identifying disease symptoms and taking appropriate action when attending to suspected cases.

Regional Medical Officer issues directive

Mbeya Regional Medical Officer, Dr Elizabeth Nyema, said the training had equipped health experts with skills to protect themselves while treating patients and establish appropriate service delivery procedures whenever someone showing signs of an infectious disease was identified.

She said the priority was to ensure healthcare workers remained safe while patients continued receiving treatment without creating opportunities for infections to spread from one health facility to another.

Dr Nyema explained that patients could sometimes arrive at health facilities with symptoms that were not immediately detected before continuing their journeys to other areas, potentially increasing the risk of disease transmission.

“It is vital service providers know how to protect themselves and also treat patients. You can receive a client with challenges without knowing, be served and continue travelling to another council. That is not a good thing, hence we must strengthen ourselves in our areas,” she said.

In view of this, Dr Nyema urged councils to ensure that experts who attended the training shared their knowledge with colleagues at other health facilities to extend the benefits to more healthcare workers.

She said this was particularly important for Mbeya Region because of its proximity to Malawi and Zambia, making strong surveillance and infectious disease control systems essential.

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