South Sudan has successfully conducted its first ever laboratory test for Ebola using the emergency management and laboratory infrastructure developed with support from WHO as part of emergency preparedness.
The Joint External Evaluation (JEE) for South Sudan which was conducted in 2017, made a number of recommendations to fill the gaps in laboratory capacity and ability to fulfil the core competencies of the International Health Regulations 2005. WHO with support from DFID, South Sudan Humanitarian Fund, USAID and the European Union Humanitarian Aid (ECHO), has since been supporting the country to address these gaps, particularly in creating the capacity required to diagnose priority diseases in-country. Earlier this year 20 Ministry of Health (MoH) staff from the National and State levels underwent an intensive training on laboratory biosafety and EVD preparedness. This included training on the use of GeneXpert to safely test for the Zaire strain of Ebola at the National Public Health Laboratory.
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