Infection Prevention and Control Interventions in Targeted Health Facilities

The Global Health Security Agenda (GHSA)—a global partnership of countries and organizations—was launched in 2014 with the aim to strengthen country, regional, and global capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease threats. To meet requirements described in the World Health Organization (WHO) International Health Regulations (IHR) 2005, Cameroon became a GHSA participating country. In September 2017, Cameroon carried out an external evaluation of the IHR’s 19 areas using the WHO Joint External Evaluation (JEE) tool.

The outcomes of the evaluation serve as baseline metrics to measure progress in capacity building. The evaluation revealed that antimicrobial resistance (AMR) was one of the weakest technical areas for Cameroon, with the lowest score of 1 out of 5 for all four associated indicators, including the prevention and control of health care-associated infections (HCAIs). In 2018, MTaPS started supporting 10 countries, including Cameroon, to provide technical assistance to strengthen systems and practices that enhance infection prevention and control (IPC), among other areas.