The Minister for Health, Dr Neil Sharma this week acknowledged and thanked various donor agencies for their support and assistance towards the Fijian Government’s response to recent dengue fever cases.
“I would like to thank you for your support in whatever form it has been and we look forward to your continued assistance so that our midterm and long term arrangements could be that people receive a better quality of life in Fiji and region”, Minister Sharma told representatives from various agencies including diplomats.
“We need to be able to continue with this effort and this meeting to bring you together to demonstrate what exactly we are doing and to be able to be transparent as far as the support you have provided whether it is financial or technical in nature.
The Minister briefed international partners and donors about the status of the endemic since the detection of the outbreak in December 2013.
“A National Dengue taskforce was put in place to be able to monitor, coordinate and assist our health team to get out to the periphery and be able to do justice to the disease entity and to rescue people who have been suffering from the disease.
“This included various measures such as advocacy, public health measures, the lab support, clinical services outreach and being able to coordinate this with our donors and partners, international partners and global agencies,” Dr Sharma said.
Dr Sharma outlined the six target areas that the response team aims at; surveillance, clinical management, lab reporting and management, public health response, logistics for dengue outbreak coordination and improved communication for dengue outbreaks.
The government approach and the partnership formed with public and corporate organizations have assisted in reducing figures and statistics for dengue cases.
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