As Liberia continues to count down to the 42 days mark to be declared Ebola-free, since the last confirmed EVD case tested twice negative on March 03,  2015, the Ministry of Health of Liberia in collaboration with WHO and other partners is focusing on ensuring that healthcare workers remain safe as they continue to provide care. Today, the Acting Minister of Health, Dr Bernice Dahn launched a training package designed to empower health workers to remain safe while providing quality care to patients in health care facilities (HCFs) and in Ebola Treatment Units (ETU).

Speaking at the Launch, the Minister stated that the objective of the training package is to build county and district level health care workers’ capacity in Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) measures and Ebola clinical management, to ensure quality treatment of EVD and non-EVD cases, restoration of routine health care delivery and prevention of future EVD outbreaks.  Dr Dahn acknowledged the progress to date in bringing the EVD outbreak under control; now more than two weeks with zero Ebola cases.  However, she called on every health care worker to undergo this training to prevent future outbreaks.

In another remark, the Deputy WHO Representative, Dr Emmanuel Musa, encouraged the would-be trainers to comprehend the training content fully as they will be required to maintain the standard while rolling out the training at lower levels.  He concluded by committing WHO’s continued collaborative work with MoH to ensure safety of health care workers while providing quality care to all patients.

WHO has been actively involved in the technical development of this integrated training package. The package consists of 3 modules: IPC, clinical management of emergencies, and EVD clinical management in ETU.  The clinical component will be taught in HCFs settings and the ETU component in decommissioned ETUs. The roll out will be led by MOH, WHO with support from partners.

It is expected that the country’s approximate 10,000 HCWs in health care facilities (HCFs) in Liberia will receive this training in 2015.  The health care categories targeted include clinicians, physician assistants, midwives, nurses, nursing aides/hygienists, psychosocial, managers, and janitors.

Healthcare workers have been among the people at highest risk of infection during the Ebola outbreak, 372 healthcare workers across the country were infected and 180 died.

______________________________________________

For more information, please contact:

Email: wholiberia [at] who.int" target="_blank">  wholiberia [at] who.int