Mr. Kofi Portuphy, National Coordinator of the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO) has said Ghana was well prepared to manage and contain pandemics and emergencies should there be an outbreak.

He said Ghana had developed a draft National Pandemic Preparedness and Response Plan adopting the “Whole of Society Approach” in line with the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommendations for all member states.

“Notwithstanding this, there is an urgent need to prepare the non health sector to be better equipped with the necessary information and guidelines for the prevention and containment of pandemics”, he said.

Speaking at the opening of Ghana’s First International Conference on Pandemics, Mr. Portuphy explained that existing information, education and communication materials have been revised to incorporate key messages on prevention to reinforce behavioral change whilst new materials with key messages on pandemic influenza prevention and personal hygiene have also been developed.

The two-day conference under the theme: “Pandemic Preparedness –Our Responsibility” is being hosted by NADMO in collaboration with the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).

The conference will focus on pandemic preparedness in view of the imminent risks which epidemic outbreaks of emerging and newly emerging infectious diseases pose to the health of people and the further development of countries in Africa and across the world.

It will also offer a platform to discuss recent scientific developments and to share best practices and lessons learnt in interventions for pandemics including influenza. Participants will have the opportunity to obtain global updates on current developments in this area and to discuss the role of the public and private sectors in national pandemic preparedness

Issues to be addressed include the importance of communications in pandemics at all levels and the critical need for multi-sector coordination

Giving the rationale behind the conference, the NADMO Coordinator noted that both new and re-emerging infectious diseases posed a constant imminent risk to human health and economic well-being of countries.

He said developing countries encountered problems in preparing for a pandemic whilst medicines including vaccines were less likely to be available.

“With the risk level of influenza pandemic unchanged and other re-emerging pathogens becoming public health threats, maintaining an appropriate focus on pandemic preparedness has been an ongoing global challenge”, he said.

It was against this background that the Pandemic Conference is being organized to offer professionals working in the area of pandemics an opportunity to update their knowledge on current developments in pandemic preparedness, share best practices and experiences and discuss different approaches to enhance pandemic preparedness at national and local levels.

Participants will be discussing among other things global update on pandemics including influenza, Current global interventions for managing pandemics including influenza, Importance of communications in pandemic preparedness/response and simulation exercises and the roles of government.

Other thematic areas would include the community level preparedness, private sector experience in pandemic preparedness, civil society, and the private sector in pandemic preparedness, advances in good practice in business continuity planning and contingency planning as well as human and animal health, medical interventions and non-medical interventions.

Mr. Portuphy together with Dr. Holger Till, Team Leader from GIZ ReCHT, launched the Pandemic Preparedness logo, which has two Ps with one facing the other with – Informed, Ready, Together, written beneath it.

Informed is to create the awareness about pandemics, Ready is building the capacity of the people and Together is joining hands with people to fight the pandemic since it was not the responsibility of one person but all.

Mr. Fritz Baffour Minister of Information commended the efforts put by NADMO and the continuous support provided by GIZ to help Ghana build a national pandemic response capacity building efforts.

He called for a greater collaboration between institutions locally and internationally for an effective response to health and other emergencies.

Dr. Till expressed GIZ’s commitment and financial support to assist Ghana implement its pandemic preparedness plan.**