East, Central and Southern African Health Community 73rd Health Ministers Conference

In June, the ECSA-HC expert committee presented at the East, Central and Southern African Health Community (ECSA HC) 73rd Health Ministers Conference in Arusha Tanzania. ECSA-HC is an inter-governmental health organization that fosters and promotes regional cooperation in health among member states. Member states of the ECSA HC are Eswatini, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

The ECSA-HC, with support of College of Ophthalmologists of East Central and Southern Africa (COECSA) and IABP established the ECSA-HC expert committee on eye health in 2018, in an effort to raise and sustain the eye health agenda high at the national and regional level.
Recognizing the high burden of eye diseases, inadequate prioritization of eye health care and the urgent need for action, the ECSA-HC expert committee on eye health was provided an opportunity at the 14th Best Practices Forum & 30th Directors Joint Consultative Committee Meeting to systematically raise these issues ahead of the Health Ministers Conference.

The conference theme was 50 years of leadership and excellence in regional health collaboration and the ECSA-HC expert committee made presentations under two of the conferences sub-themes:

• NCDs, Mental Health and Substance Abuse:
  • Preventing blindness with early screening of the three major blinding NCD’s: Diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma and hypertensive retinopathy
  • Comparison of Prevalence of Trachomatous Inflammation—Follicular with Serological Analysis in Kaoma, Nkeyema and Luampa Districts, Western Province, Zambia
• Technology and Innovation in Health:
  • Innovative Smartphone-based school screening for visual impairment in Kenya – the Peek school eye health system

The presentation on Smartphone-based school screening for visual impairment was picked as one of the recommendations to the DJCC and ultimately the HMC. The DJCC was concerned about issues presented, high burden of eye conditions and yet limited response by the countries in the region and applauded the efforts being made to raise eye health issue high on the agenda.