The 16th East, Central, and Southern Africa College of Nursing and Midwifery (ECSACONM) Biennial Scientific Conference themed ‘‘The Role of Evidence-Based Practice and Innovations in Nursing and Midwifery in Combating Emerging and Re-emerging Pandemics’’ held at the Avani Hotel in the Kingdom of Lesotho marked a significant milestone in advancing healthcare in the region.
The conference was attended by over 1000 delegates from sixteen countries namely; Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, South Africa, Rwanda, Botswana, Namibia, Swaziland, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Seychelles, Democratic Republic of Congo and Mauritius. Malawi was represented by sixteen delegates.
Dr. Chitsa Banda posing with Mrs. Chikondi Chimbatata on the event.
Dr. Evelyn Chitsa Banda- deputy director for research division and Mrs. Chikondi Chimbatata from PHIM were also in attendance. Mrs Chimbatata presented an abstract titled; Paediatric Sickle Cell Disease at a tertiary hospital in Malawi: a retrospective cross sectional study.
The conference offered a platform to reflect, share experience, and collaborate on strategies to strengthen our response to future pandemics and improve nursing and midwifery practice.
Clinical laboratories in Malawi form the foundation of evidence-based patient treatment and care. They are a fundamental component of disease surveillance, diagnosis and monitoring at every level of the healthcare system. Microbiology is one of the services offered by clinical laboratories to guide clinicians in antibiotic prescription and monitoring of antimicrobial resistance trends among pathogens of medical importance.
Laboratories require competent human resources, material support, continuous supervision and mentorships to carry out tests and produce good-quality and reliable results. In Malawi, the District Public Hospital and Christian Health Association of Malawi (CHAM) laboratory services have suffered from inattention and chronic under-development with minimal resources for microbiology services.
Recently the Government of Malawi, Ministries of Health through the Public Health Institute of Malawi (PHIM) has increasingly prioritised the quality of microbiology testing services by incorporating the implementation of quality management systems improvement and capacity-building activities into laboratory service work plans.
Laboratory officer happily showing the intended result from culture.
One of the improvement strategy is to train more laboratory staff in basic microbiology and to scale up number of laboratories that could conduct microbiology testing.
Mr Yollam Chavula , Principle Laboratory Scientist responsible for technical microbiology work at NPHL and team.
Miss Khumbo Maseko a microbiologist at NPHL demonstrating culture and sensitivity tests at one of the laboratories in Malawi
Mr. Hurry Milala observing how a mentored laboratory staff performs drug sensitivity testing.
PHIM through National Microbiology Reference Laboratory (NMRL) holds a critical role in rapid response to infectious diseases. Among its mandates, the NMRL leads Malawi’s laboratory microbiology-based surveillance and disease control services through the detection of pathogens using microbiology techniques. It has a plan to have a network of district and Mission laboratories capable of conducting culture and sensitivity testing to confirm disease outbreaks.
It is for this reason that NMRL planned to conduct supportive supervision and mentorship for 9 laboratories including Machinga, Chiradzulu, Phalombe, Mulanje DHO, Mulanje Mission, Nsanje, Chikwawa, Malamulo mission and Nguludi (ST Joseph mission).
The activity involved the preparation of culture media, doing quality checks for the prepared culture media, and culturing patients’ samples. The activity also involved organism identification, drug sensitivity testing (AST) and how to report results.
Staff from NPHL attending morning handovers as a means of sensitisation to utilise microbiology results in the patients’ management.
The team also had an opportunity to attend daily district hospital morning reports as a means of sensitizing clinicians and nurses to use laboratory as evidence in the management of patients.
Commenting on the activity, the deputy director Mr Joseph Bitilinyu Bangoh who is also the head of the National Public Health Laboratory, highlighted that microbiology activities play a crucial role in patient management, outbreak investigations and disease surveillance. He again said that no surveillance is complete without a laboratory and that laboratory workers need to be vigilant when it comes to disease investigations. He sympathetically said that sometimes Public Health issues go without answers, citing a recent Neno outbreak and conjunctivitis that cost mortality and morbidity among children attending primary schools. He further said that emergency outbreaks like the Neno disease need to be responded to rapidly by the laboratory so that intervention are mitigated and implemented promptly. He encouraged those who went for mentorship and supervision to work hard and provide quality mentorship skills so that microbiology in Malawi gives proper answers to outbreaks and other health needs. He promised the team that he was in support of the activity and in his capacity as deputy director PHIM, he would make sure that NPHL is involved in all disease surveillance and outbreak investigations.
Empowering Healthcare Workers to Combat Mpox Outbreak.
19-09-2024, Mponela, Dowa District, Malawi – Dr Mwale [front-left] and ToT 4th Session team.
The Public Health Institute of Malawi (PHIM) has recently been conducting sessions of a critical Training of Trainers (ToT) workshop on Mpox countrywide. The Fourth session of the Mpox ToT took place in Mponela, Dowa District from 19th – 20th of Sepetember, 2024. Dr. Annie Chauma Mwale, Deputy Director for PHIM drew attention on, as she made opening remarks, that the exercise aims to strengthen the HCW capacity on districts preparedness for Mpox, as South Africa and Democratic Republic of Congo are reporting Mpox cases.
Mpox ToT 4th Sessions participants.
This initiative aimed to equip healthcare workers [Clinicians, IPC Officers, HPOs, IDSR Coordinators, DEHOs, Pharmacists, Dermatologists, HIV Officers, Point of Entry Officers and Laboratory Officers] from Ntchisi, Kasungu, Rumphi, Likoma, Nkhotakota, Salima with the essential knowledge and skills to effectively manage and prevent the spread of the Mpox virus.
Facilitation in process by Dr. Nyembezi on Mpox Treatment.
The ToT program covered a wide range of topics like Mpox epidemiology and transmission: Understanding the nature and spread of the virus. Clinical presentation and diagnosis: Recognizing the signs and symptoms of Mpox. Case Management and treatment: Implementing appropriate care and treatment strategies. Public health response: Coordinating prevention and control measures, and many more.
By training healthcare workers as trainers, PHIM is empowering the Healthacare workers in the districts to cascade their knowledge and skills to a wider network of frontline health workers, ensuring a more comprehensive response to the Mpox outbreak. The Mpox ToT workshop is a significant step towards strengthening capacity to combat the virus and protect public health of the Republic of Malawi.
