New services of the National Institute of Hygiene of Kara launched

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Extract from the article: The Ministry of Health inaugurated three new departments of the National Institute of Hygiene (INH) in Kara on Tuesday 21 February 2023. These are vaccination, water and food microbiology, and water chemistry. The ceremony was chaired by Dr Wotobe...

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The Ministry of Health inaugurated three new departments of the National Institute of Hygiene (INH) in Kara on Tuesday 21 February 2023. These are vaccination, water and food microbiology, and water chemistry. The ceremony was chaired by Dr Wotobe Kokou, Secretary General of the Ministry of Health. It was attended by the German Ambassador, Matthias Veltin, Dr Halatoko Belei Wemboo Afiwa, Director General of INH, the Prefect of Kozah, Colonel Bakali Badibawou, the Mayor of Kozah 1, Pidabi Pawoubadi.

The occurrence of the health crisis in 2020 revealed a certain fragility of the health systems. And it was necessary to strengthen the resilience of the health system, more concretely the improvement of response actions to diseases with epidemic potential and the prevention of pandemics. It is within this framework that the Federal Republic of Germany supported the Ministry of Health in the improvement and creation of new services at the INH Kara branch through the project "Strengthening of the Health System - Reproductive Health and Sexual Rights ProHealth" implemented by the GIZ.

For the autonomous operation of this new branch, the renovation of the annex building and the provision of equipment were discussed. In addition to the coronavirus screening service, additional services such as vaccination, water and food microbiology, and water chemistry have now been added, as well as a medical biology service that will be equipped by the INH.

"Most of the services that the National Institute of Hygiene offers while being based in Lomé, will now be accessible in the northern part with the INH Kara antenna. These are essentially the rapid confirmation of all diseases with epidemic potential, the quality control of water and food, that is to say ensuring that water, food and everything that is drink meet the sanitary and international standards in terms of content of chemicals or microorganisms. For travellers, it is now possible to update their vaccinations from the INH Kara. Also, the Kara branch will now offer supervision of trainees from the University of Kara," said Dr Halatoko Belei Wemboo Afiwa, Director General of the National Institute of Hygiene.  The inauguration of the new services of this INH Kara branch celebrates the results of the fruitful collaboration between the Togolese government and the Federal Republic of Germany to improve the country's response capacity.

At the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, with funding from Germany to the tune of 1725,000 euros (1,130,000,000 CFA francs), the ProSanté project supported the INH in setting up a branch in Kara to cover the Covid-19 screening needs of the northern regions of the country. This support consisted of several supplies and reagents, consumables and equipment for PCR testing, coupled with staff training. 

Raymond DZAKPATA