São Tomé awaits public health institute
By the AFREEQUE newsroom, based on Téla Nón
The creation of São Tomé and Príncipe’s National Institute of Public Health is still awaiting presidential enactment of its decree-law and statutes. The texts have been blocked for around two years, according to National Centre for Endemic Diseases director Bonifácio Sousa, who stresses the institution’s role in preventing and responding to epidemics.
São Tomé and Príncipe has been waiting for around two years for the enactment of the legislation establishing its National Institute of Public Health, according to Bonifácio Sousa, director of the National Centre for Endemic Diseases, quoted by Téla Nón. The institutionalisation decree-law and statutes were drawn up with support from the network of national public health institutes of the Community of Portuguese-speaking Countries (CPLP), then sent to the competent authorities.
São Tomé and Príncipe and Equatorial Guinea are the only CPLP members that do not yet have such an institute, according to Bonifácio Sousa. The future institution is intended to strengthen national capacity to prevent and respond to epidemics, particularly amid Ebola and mpox outbreaks in Africa.
The National Institute of Public Health is to operate in the current premises of the National Centre for Endemic Diseases. The country already has a National Reference Laboratory with staff and equipment enabling, among other things, molecular biology analyses, Bonifácio Sousa said.
