The World Health Organization (WHO) has provided the medical equipment to the Ministry of Health to strengthen surveillance efforts at the airport and border crossings with Indonesia in order to prevent the spread of disease.
The National Professional Officer (Family Health, Gender and Life Course) for WHO, Jeremias da Cruz, said the surveillance unit at the airport and border posts was important to prevent the spread of infectious diseases that occur in other countries.
“The health personnel are trained, but lack basic equipment to do their work efficiently so we support them to strengthen their surveillance efforts in order to work more efficiently,” he said following a ceremony to hand over the equipment to General Director for Work Achievement Dr Odete Viegas at Hotel Timor in Dili.
He said 19 items of equipment would be distributed, including a thermometer, digital blood pressure monitor, first aid medication, a table, chairs and other administration items.
In 2007, WHO provided thermo-scanners for border posts in Batugade (Bobonaro), Mota Masin (Covalima), Sakato and Oesilo in Oecusse, as well as Dili port and the international airport, after a case of avian flu was detected.
However, da Cruz said the equipment had stopped functioning well and needed to be reinstalled again.
He said WHO is continuing to support health personnel to improve their abilities by providing training inside and outside the country and adequate equipment.
Meanwhile, Dr Viegas acknowledged that surveillance at the border posts was not functioning at a maximum level and called on all relevant ministries to reactivate the services because lack of coordination was a big problem.
“Health ministry personnel like doctors, analysts and nurses have already been allocated [to border posts], but we now need to reinforce that,” she said.
To prevent outbreaks in Timor, she said it was important that the relevant ministries worked together as live animal imports could bring disease to the country.
