Liberia Receives IANPHIs’ Accreditation and Voting Member Status

Bali, Indonesia – Two Liberian health experts attending the ongoing 5th Global Health Security Agenda Annual meeting in Bali, Indonesia, have made a strong case for support to the health care delivery system of Liberia.

According to a dispatched from Bali, the Republic of Indonesia, the Director General of the National Public Health Institute of Liberia (NPHIL), Cllr. Tolbert Nyenswah, and Deputy Minister for Health Services and Chief Medical Officer of Liberia, Dr. Francis Kateh, joined world health leaders in Bali to discuss health security, focusing on diseases that have the potential to disrupt health systems, like case of the unprecedented 2014-2016 Ebola virus disease outbreak (EVD) which claimed many lives.

The Bali’s meeting, the dispatched further discloses, affords the two experts the opportunity to share needful experiences with other world health leaders in dealing with public health threats. The two men who were instrumental in ending the EVD crisis in Liberia, also advocated for greater partnerships to support the country’s healthcare delivery system.

Earlier this week in London, Liberia was admitted as full, accredited and voting member of the International Association of National Public Health Institutes (IANPHIs). The decision to admit Liberia took place at the Annual Meeting of the Association, which took place on November 6, 2018 in London, the United Kingdom. Liberia’s admittance comes following significant improvement in the nation’s public health sector.

This milestone now allows the National Public Health Institute of Liberia, to join a pool of institutes including, the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, China Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Norway, Italy, Ethiopian National Public Health Institute, Nigeria Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and 89 other institutes in 100 countries around the world.

This admittance has also placed Liberia at a stronger position to partner and mobilize additional resources to train Liberian in the field of public health. The 2018 annual meeting was hosted by Public Health England, at the Millennium Gloucester Hotel, Kensington, London, the United Kingdom.

Similarly, at the 5th Global Symposium on Health Systems Research, held in Liverpool, the United Kingdom, October 8-12, 2018, Cllr. Nyenswah highlighted the progress made in Liberia, in rebuilding the health system, by building resilience in epidemic preparedness and response, post-Ebola, through the National Public Health Institute of Liberia, collaborating with the Ministry of Health. At that meeting, he also made a strong case for support to the country’s health system. Director Nyenswah assured the world that Liberia is ten times more prepared then it was during the Ebola virus disease outbreak.