The Minister of Health, Ussene Isse, inaugurated the Public Health Laboratory in Gaza, in the southern province, on Friday (25).
Mozambique now has public health laboratories in all provincial capitals, with the exception of the city and province of Maputo.
The geographical proximity of the city and province of Maputo is covered by central public health laboratories, located at the headquarters of the National Health Institute (INS) in the municipality of Marracuene, in the southern province of Maputo.
Budgeted at US$700,000, from the Mozambican government and the Global Fund, including the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the laboratory has the capacity to process around 600 samples in eight hours of work. As a result, Gaza now has laboratory diagnostic capacity for outbreaks and epidemics.
Speaking during the event, Isse said that the new laboratory will increase the technological capacity of Gaza province to carry out scientific research activities, including the training of health professionals at the provincial level.
In addition to investment in infrastructure, equipment and state-of-the-art information systems, the laboratory, according to Isse, is staffed by human resources trained in the areas of molecular diagnostics, laboratory testing quality, biosafety and bioprotection.
Health authorities guarantee that the laboratory will improve the capacity for assessing the quality of testing carried out in the province and technical support to clinical laboratories. In fact, said the minister, the laboratory has qualified human resources for testing different diseases, which translates into important gains for the health of the province’s population.
‘We believe that with this combination of modern technology and qualified technicians, the province is better equipped to respond to the main public health challenges, both present and future,’ he said.
With the inauguration of the Public Health Laboratory in Gaza, Mozambique, according to Isse, is taking a giant step towards becoming the only African country with a network of public health laboratories in all provinces.
Today, Gaza joins the group of provinces with operational public health laboratories and becomes self-sufficient in confirming outbreaks and epidemics, thereby reducing the need to send samples to Maputo and thus the laboratory response time for confirming outbreaks and epidemics.
According to the minister, the expansion and decentralisation of specialised laboratory testing is a priority for the sector and is in line with a package of strategic actions defined to bring services closer to communities and in response to the increasing frequency and severity of threats of outbreaks and epidemics.
Over the past four years, the Ministry of Health has set up eight public health laboratories in eight provinces, namely Cabo Delgado, Niassa, Nampula, Zambézia, Sofala, Tete, Manica and Inhambane.
All laboratories are equipped with modern technology for specialised disease diagnosis.
For his part, the director of the Global Fund’s Grant Management Division in Mozambique, Mark Edington, assured that the newly inaugurated laboratory represents a significant advance in the country’s ability to detect and respond quickly to community health issues.
‘The Global Fund is proud to have supported this achievement, from financing to strengthening the health systems implemented by UNDP, and our investment is guided by a shared commitment to building resilient and sustainable health systems,’ said Edington.
The UNDP representative in Mozambique, Edo Stork, said that the laboratory includes a continuous drinking water distribution system and is also powered by solar energy, which he considers to be an extremely important model for helping communities.
‘Similar projects generate more sustainability for the laboratory itself,’ he stressed.
Gaza has one provincial hospital, three rural hospitals and two district hospitals, including 158 health centres and 12 health units.
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