South Sudan's Warrap State health ministry has trained more than 30 health workers from Gogrial West County in Integrated Disease Surveillance Response (IDSR).

The three-day training, which started on Monday, was organized by the state ministry of health with support from the World Health Organization (WHO) to build the capacity of health staff in identifying and reporting health challenges at the Primary Health Care Centres (PHCC) and Primary Health Care Units (PHCU) levels.

John Akol Akol, the state director of surveillance and disease control said the training is crucial in the detection and reporting of emerging diseases and trends. 

"We are training 35 health staff on Integrated Diseases Surveillance and Response(IDSR) which is part of our work in the ministry of health. We trained them to be watchful and report emerging cases like unusual death of animals and snake bites including Covid-19, we have empowered them to do their work better," he said.

Akol said similar training was done in Tonj South and Tonj North Counties two months ago. 

"If we more support from our partners, we will do the same training in other counties," he assured.

Albino Madut Nyok, a data officer at the health ministry said he has learned a lot. 

"I have benefited from the introductory part about the principles of IDSR, the idea of integrated components of one health system that's when reporting for any disease like malaria, we need to consider other diseases like animals sicknesses and integrated them in the report because there is a connection between animal and people health. The same as unusual death of birds then attention must be paid to and report it together for a quick response from government and health partners," he said.

Madut adds, "we were also trained on the International Health Regulation (IHR) as South Sudan is not an island, it was adapted in 2005. It means every disease like measles, EPI polio has its form and its reporting system that's to say there're diseases reported weekly, quarterly and diseases like Ebola, Covid-19, and guinea worm are reported immediately." 

Another participant, John Rel, Akon PHCC in charge said the knowledge he has gained will be beneficial to the whole of Gogrial West County.

"I have captured very important notes about IDSR and how it helps the community in reporting all diseases from boma, payam, county, state, and Juba. This will not just be of help to me alone but to all health facilities in Gogrial West County to know the good reporting system," he said.

According to the Centre for Disease Control, the IDSR framework makes surveillance and laboratory data more usable, helping public health managers and decision-makers improve detection and response to the leading causes of illness, death, and disability in African countries.