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Mauritius News

High hopes for Mauritian obesity roadmap

Mauritius recently made a significant step forward in its ongoing struggle against noncommunicable diseases (NCDs). Indeed, the presentation of the Mauritius Acceleration Plan to Stop Obesity 2024-2030 on April 25 by the Stakeholders’ Roundtable on Actions to Accelerate the Prevention and Management of Obesity represents a clear signal of the country’s intention to curb the scourge of the NCDs which account for 80% of the disease burden and 85% of mortalities.  

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Exploring the meaning of My health, my right

World Health Day 2024 was marked with purpose by member States, WHO Country Offices and their partners the world over, bringing to a close the WHO’s 75th anniversary year celebrations. This year’s activities were guided by the theme, My health, my right, and its message in favour of available, accessible and acceptable health care.

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WHO supports Mauritius as it grapples with first dengue outbreak

Dengue fever is having a moment. According to WHO data, cases worldwide increased significantly in 2023, following a small decline during the three previous years. A potent cocktail of ongoing transmissions and a surge in new cases saw the worldwide number of dengue cases exceed five million, a near record high. And although the lion’s share of the new cases has been reported in the Region of the Americas (almost 80%), the Aedes mosquito has transformed dengue into a truly global problem.

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WHO Mauritius launches health priorities for next two years

WHO Mauritius  launched its new Biennial Workplan 2024-2025 with the Ministry of Health and Wellness (MOHW) on March 18, 2024. This results-focused document, which is the fruit of a close collaborative effort between WHO Mauritius and the MOHW, defines the priorities of the Organization for the next two years in terms of public health outcomes.

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Establishment of the Public Health Emergency Operations Centre in Mauritius Ministry...

Public health emergencies arising from multi hazards and threats continue to be a major concern, especially in the African Region with more than 100 public health emergencies reported and responded to annually. To enhance swift, effective and coordinated prevention, preparation, response and recovery to these emergencies, the International Health Regulations recommend the establishment of a functional Public Health Emergency Operations Centre (PHEOC) to serve as the ‘nerve centre’ for preparation and response to public health emergencies. Mauritius strives to have an established PHEOC with a well-established incident command and control system, with the necessary well trained core workforce, tested standard operating procedures, well equipped physical facility where results from surveillance and/or early detection of alerts can be managed in a timely manner and lead to swift and effective response of public health emergencies to subsequently reduce the health and socio- economic burden on the country.
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Mauritius tackles anti-microbial resistance through formulation of a second Plan of ...

Mauritius has successfully developed its second national action plan on anti-microbial resistance (AMR) 2024-2028, through a three-week robust workshop supported by the World Health Organization. This comes following the evaluation of the first national action plan (NAP) 2018-2022 by the same team from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Ministry of Health and Wellness (MOHW) in September 2023. The Ministry of Health and Wellness of Mauritius has shown great concern about the burden of AMR.  A significant number of deaths in Mauritius can be attributed to hospital-acquired infections, many of which are caused by drug-resistant organisms. The global findings are also worrying with 1.27 million deaths caused by AMR while a further 4.95 million deaths are associated with AMR in 2019. The WHO Representative Dr Anne Ancia has underlined the high rates of multi-drug organisms reported at hospital level and most importantly in the intensive care units. The growing rates of AMR and the decline in new antibiotics emerging on the pharmaceutical market are likely to accentuate the problem of lack of treatment for resistant infections contributing to higher mortality rates.
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Mauritius upscales Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response

The Covid-19 pandemic has left major impact globally. Mauritius has been very efficient in responding to the pandemic through various measures established during the crisis. Although the response has been swift, the toll on the health of population as well as the socio-economic implications cannot be undermined. Among the key lessons learned, the need for strengthened preparedness and real-time early warning systems are of high priority. Mauritius thus endeavors to consistently strengthen its public health emergency preparedness and early warning system through the upscaling of its Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) System. The Ministry of Health and Wellness (MOHW) with the support of World Health Organization has therefore made major progress in IDSR this year through 1. the adaptation of the 3rd edition of the WHO technical guidelines for IDSR to meet Mauritius context, 2.  the capacity building of healthcare workers through training of  46 trainers and 151 regional Health Care Workers on IDSR, 3. the initiation of a national cascade training of IDSR aiming to train 7000 health professionals in 181 health facilities in the Republic of Mauritius by December 2024, and 4. the revision of the list of priority diseases that will be part of the real-time surveillance and early warning system.
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