The Korea International Cooperation Agency
(KOICA) has launched a new project with $8.5 million in funding to strengthen
the health systems by preventing, detecting, and responding to infectious
diseases in Cambodia.
Through this six-years project, the United
States Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (USCDC), Cambodia Office will
work with the Ministry of Health (MOH) to strengthen the national laboratory
system, build the capacity of public health personnel including field
epidemiologists and establish emergency management in the national and
sub-national levels.
Country Director of KOICA Cambodia Office, Mr.
Rho Hyujun who presided over the ceremony exchanged the signed Record of
Discussion (R/D) with Secretary of State for Health, Dr. Or Vandine. The signed
Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was also exchanged between the KOICA Country
Director and the USCDC Country Director, Dr. Rachel Albalak .
This new project will continue to support the
training of field epidemiologists so each district has an epidemiologist, by
the end of the project, who can inspect the outbreak of any suspected cases in
the area and follow up on the cases found.
In addition, KOICA will keep on building the
Laboratory Quality Management System (LQMS) and Laboratory Information System
(LIS) in 49 public laboratories in the country and strengthen the specimen
transportation capacity.
All public laboratories will be expected to
equip with more accurate and reliable diagnostics to detect infectious diseases
as a result of this project.
The Emergency Operating Center (EOC) which
performed a pivotal role in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic will also
receive financial and technical support through this project, which will help
run simulation exercises, complete a national risk assessment, finalise the EOC
Standards Operating Procedures (SOPs) and conduct training for the EOC staffs
and provincial focal points.