Core capacity Assessment Findings. The assessment was conducted in June 2009 covering selected sites at the centre and three levels in all the eight provinces. The three levels covered were intermediate health facilities, peripheral health facilities and the community. Key findings included availability of necessary legislation with a high level of staff awareness but poor law enforcement. The IHR national focal person (NFP) was in place but did not have a dedicated budget line for IHR activities. Very little inter- sectoral collaboration existed at the sub-national levels. A structured surveillance system existed with coordinators at provincial and district level, however less than half of the teams had terms of reference. Moreover, lack of guidelines for zoonotic, nuclear and chemical events was noted as well as weak community level surveillance. Guidelines and SOPs for coordination of communication with roles and responsibilities of all stakeholders at the national level were not in place. The laboratory referral system from peripheral to national level was noted to be poor; there was weak capacity to handle some PHEICs (radiological, viral and chemical). In addition to the above findings, the following observations were made on the country’s capacity to handle Zoonotic Events (ZE); OIE Performance of Veterinary Services (PVS) “One Health” Evaluation in November 2011 corroborated the core capacity assessment report: • Existence of a national policy, legislation and an operational plan on surveillance and response to zoonotic events hosted at the MALF under the Department of Veterinary Services • Capacity to carry out rapid response for ZE by the availability of experts, specimen collection kits, personal protective equipment (PPE), logistics and vaccines to forestall diseases like Rift valley Fever, Rabies and anthrax • Regular monthly training of professionals in response to Zoonotic Events as well as existences of standard case definitions for surveillance of ZE • Manuals/guidelines/sops for surveillance, investigation and control of ZE are available • An inter-sectoral committee/taskforce for risk reduction on zoonoses also exists. • Inadequate communication or collaboration between the Global early warning for ZE (GLEWS) Focal point and IHR Focal point. • Lack of multi-sectoral / multi-disciplinary rapid response. • Limited logistic capacity of the National Rapid Response team and lack of case management guidelines for zoonotic events. • The zoonotic surveillance unit exists at Natio...
