The UN office in Turkmenistan reported on 29 November, 2021 that WHO/Europe’s high level expert mission has completed its mission to Turkmenistan to strengthen health systems preparedness.
The mission was headed by Dr. Dorit Nitzan, Regional Emergency Director for WHO/Europe.She commented: “During our visit, we were keen to highlight the evolving nature of the pandemic throughout the Region due to the spread of the delta variant.
We also drew attention to the emergence of new variants and the spread seen globally, even in countries with high vaccination coverage”.
An important highlight of the mission was discussing with teams from the Ministers of Health and Medical Industry and the Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection strengthening sub-regional capacities in bacteriology and virology, based on the One Health Principles.
In addition, the mission looked at how virus genetic sequencing capacities could be set up to help with the detection of COVID-19.
“The mission has highlighted the need to strengthen efforts to detect COVID-19.Reporting cases in a timely manner is a must, as it enables the activation of additional arms of the response: contact tracing; quarantine; provision of adequate care and appropriate case management; tailoring of measures to the epidemiological situation; surveillance and testing.
All require community engagement and are rooted in transparency”, Dr.Dorit Nitzan said.
As well as supporting Turkmenistan preparing for COVID-19, WHO experts had the opportunity to visit several medical facilities to provide advice in other areas including non-communicable diseases, tobacco control, and health information systems.
The team combined expertise in emergency preparedness and response, noncommunicable diseases, environment and One Health, epidemiology and surveillance, health data and information systems, digital health and innovation. Working together with Turkmen experts, they were able to make made recommendations, based on sound data, scientific evidence and the experience of other countries in the European Region.
The UN office reminded that the mission was decided during Dr. Hans Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe visit to Turkmenistan.
On 8 October, 2021 Hand Kluge arrived in Ashgabat for talks with President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov.
Based on the outcomes of the meetings the sides agreed to hold the WHO technical mission to Turkmenistan to study COVID-19 genome “soon”.A year earlier the Turkmen President allowed the WHO mission to conduct independent COVID sampling in Turkmenistan but the mission was unable to come with a follow-up visit.
On 9 November, 2021 Dr Catherine Smallwood, a WHO senior emergencies officer COVID-19, said that “the pandemic has been spreading worldwide for almost two years now.
From the scientific point of view, it’s unlikely that the virus is not circulating in Turkmenistan”.The post After completing its mission to Turkmenistan the WHO urges to strengthen efforts to detect COVID-19 first appeared on Chronicles of Turkmenistan.