Ministry of Health holds polio outbreak exercise workshop

Muscat: Muscat- Ministry of Health (MOH) conducted a training workshop on Polio Outbreak Simulation Exercise (POSE) at the Radisson Blu hotel last week.

The two-day workshop aimed at updating polio outbreak preparedness and response in Oman and informing the responsible government officials and Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI) partners on the most recent guidelines. The workshop introduced the participants to the objectives of conducting the POSE.

More than 50 participants representing the governmental, Non-MOH and Private Health Sectors and from all relevant specialties such as Communicable Disease, Epidemiology, Surveillance and Pediatric participated in the workshop.

The training activity was held with the support of the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Eradication Program and represented by the Communicable Disease Surveillance of the Directorate General for Disease Surveillance & Control.

It further discussed the (GPEI) and current statue of the Initiative at the global, regional, and national levels. Moreover, the workshop highlighted the key strategies for rapid interruption of a polio outbreak and introduced the participants to POSE guidelines. The second day of the workshop discussed major guidelines on actions required in different polio outbreak periods.

The Sultanate has not registered any Polio cases since 1993 and more than 99 per cent of the population was vaccinated against polio.