CARPHA conducts assessment of St Lucia’s communicable disease surveillance systems

CASTRIES, St Lucia – The Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) recently conducted a mission to Saint Lucia (17-24 September 2021) to undertake a national assessment of the country’s communicable disease surveillance systems.

The CARPHA team conducted this exercise with the ministry of health Saint Lucia through the grant funding of the World Bank Regional Health Project.

The assessment aimed to review the capacity of Saint Lucia to conduct timely, complete, and efficient reporting of diseases, and perform routine communicable disease surveillance and diagnostics. Some surveillance areas assessed include zoonotic diseases, foodborne and waterborne diseases, tourism and refugee and migrant health, environmental health and sexually transmitted infections.

A total of 18 assessments and seven visits with multiple stakeholders from various ministries and private sector were conducted. The team conducted visits to multiple health facilities and laboratories inclusive of hospitals, health care centres, the surveillance, infection control and environmental units, public and private laboratories. CARPHA was quite pleased with the detailed information collected during these assessments. The results will be analysed and serve as a baseline for developing recommendations for Saint Lucia’s national surveillance systems.

Funding for the mission to Saint Lucia was provided by the World Bank through the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Regional Health Project. Saint Lucia is one of four beneficiary countries of the Project. The other countries are Dominica, Grenada and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

CARPHA is serving as the executing agency for this five-year Project which has a value of US$6,600,000.00 and seeks to enhance the National Health System and Health Security of these countries.