‘40 new disease outbreaks recorded in ECOWAS region in recent years’

An average of 40 new outbreaks of emerging and re-emerging diseases have been recorded in the ECOWAS region in recent years,  the West African Health Organisation (WAHO) has said.

The diseases include Ebola, Marburg, COVID-19 and Monkeypox.

Director-General, WAHO, Dr Melchior Athanase J.C. Aïssi, stated this yesterday in Abuja during the 7th Meeting of the Board of Directors of the ECOWAS Regional Center for Disease Surveillance and Control (CRSCM).

He said this underscored the need to continue to strengthen the capacity of the CRSCM to achieve the objective for which it was created.

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Aïssi said if irreversible progress had been made in the context of health security in the ECOWAS region, it was far from sufficient.

He said unacceptable gaps remained within and between countries.

“We can no longer view health security as a cost, but rather as an investment that forms the foundation of our productive, resilient and inclusive economies and societies,” he said.

He called for establishment of a consolidated community approach and sensitive alert mechanisms for the early detection of the main threats.