Lesotho leads Africa in health innovation: pilots AFFLU Influenza Surveillance Platform

Maseru – Lesotho has turn into the first nation in the WHO African Plot to pilot the Afro Influenza (AFFLU) surveillance platform, a cutting-edge initiative geared toward boosting the country’s health surveillance system. This platform, developed by the World Health Group (WHO) for the African command as an adaptation of the Jap Mediterranean (EMFLU) Influenza surveillance version, is designed to reinforce the assortment, management, and prognosis of every aggregate and case-basically based completely information on influenza and utterly different respiratory viruses (ORVs).

The AFFLU platform represents a essential soar ahead in the realm of health information management. It facilitates the sharing of epidemiological and virological information, streamlines information management processes, and improves information quality across all phases of the health system.

 Muza Tendai, Information Systems Specialist from the WHO Regional Pickle of job for Africa (AFRO), emphasized the transformative attainable of this platform. “This surveillance platform will strengthen the country’s respiratory disease surveillance and enable integration capabilities with other surveillance systems and datasets. It will provide real-time and advanced data analytics capabilities, customized to regional and country-specific contexts,” Tendai acknowledged.

To execute certain the a success implementation of the AFFLU platform, WHO has trained 18 stay-customers in Lesotho. These individuals are tasked with collecting and managing exact-time information at four chosen surveillance sites within and beyond the Maseru district. This training is a truly mighty for the effective operation of the platform and the ethical assortment of information.

Dr. Lieketseng Petlane, representing the Director Original of Health Companies on the Lesotho Ministry of Health, expressed her enthusiasm for the initiative. ” The Ministry of Health is deeply grateful and honoured that Lesotho is considered and supported to pilot this vital surveillance and diagnostic platform. COVID-19 taught us hard lessons and exposed some of the gaps in our health systems, particularly in diagnostics and timely responses. This initiative will help us close those gaps by strengthening our surveillance, boosting our human resource capacity, and enhancing our integrated health system resilience,” Dr. Petlane remarked.

The AFFLU platform is expected to have a profound impact on Lesotho’s health surveillance system. Malefane Thamae, Maseru District Surveillance Officer, highlighted the benefits of this development. “This might maybe maybe well relieve us in the early detection of a pandemic, hence improved Like a flash Response to affected areas. This might maybe maybe moreover provide our place of work with rapidly entry to countermeasures, such because the provision of acceptable vaccines,” Thamae explained.

Lesotho’s pioneering efforts in piloting the AFFLU surveillance platform underscore the country’s commitment to advancing its health infrastructure. By leveraging this innovative technology, Lesotho is poised to enhance its capacity to respond to respiratory diseases, ultimately improving public health outcomes for its citizens.

As the pilot program progresses, the insights gained from Lesotho’s experience will be invaluable for other African nations looking to adopt similar surveillance tools. 

The AFFLU platform not only represents a significant technological advancement but also a promising development for improved health surveillance and response across the continent.