Monrovia – The Liberia Public Health Association has called for the inclusion of “competent and qualified” skilled members to join the ongoing fight against the coronavirus pandemic.
Though the association expects the National Public Health Institute of Liberia to consider its request any time soon, LPHA Secretary General for COVID-19 Response, Etmonia Martin told a press conference on Tuesday, April 28 in Monrovia that the inclusion of those with the requisite expertise will help speedily contain the spread of the disease.
“The acceptance of LPHA into the national fight shall impact the response greatly because the expertise of its members are diverse to include, community mobilization, clinical research, managerial and other technical backgrounds which are capable of managing the outbreak,” Madam Martin said.
She added that members of LPHA have already positioned themselves with a community-based approach strategic plan. According to her, the plan includes Epi-surveillance, case management, case investigation, contact tracing, laboratory, psychosocial counseling, dead body management and risk management.
Ms Martin added that the association intends to engage community leaders as appropriate human resource in their strategic plan to combat the disease.
Although other professionals are already contributing to the response against COVID-19, the lack of more public health professionals with the requisite expertise in infectious disease control will delay the process of containing COVID-19, she cautioned.
The LPHA secretary general said that it is expedient that more professionals are included in the fight while quoting President George Weah who had earlier stressed “that the fight is not a one man’s thing, but the involvement of everyone.”
“The strength of the virus against Liberia demands a strategic rapid approach that requires all hands on deck,” she said.
“LPHA solicits speedy response from the Government of Liberia through the Executive Committee on Coronavirus, headed by Madam Mary T. Broh.”