THE Zambia Public Health Institute (ZNPHI) is urging for a more robust death registration system, as current practices leave thousands of deaths unaccounted for each year.
Stephen Chanda, the ZNPHI mortality surveillance coordinator says Zambia faces a hidden public health crisis where a staggering 80 percent of deaths go unrecorded.
Chanda said this during the launch of the dissemination meeting for baseline assessment findings, mortality surveillance strategic plan and sample registration system action plan in Lusaka yesterday.
This lack of comprehensive data significantly hinders efforts to monitor disease trends, plan healthcare resource allocation, and effectively respond to public health threats.
“Zambia’s Mortality Surveillance Systems and civil death registration challenges revolve around data quality issues related to timeliness, completeness, and accuracy,” Chanda revealed.
“This makes it difficult for the country to detect pandemic outbreaks and plan effectively.”
He said accurate and timely mortality data was crucial for public health officials as it allowed them to identify emerging disease patterns, prioritize public health interventions, and measure the effectiveness of existing programmes.
The good news is that Zambia is taking steps to address this data gap. ZNPHI recently launched a series of initiatives aimed at improving data collection and information sharing.
These include a baseline assessment of the current system, a strategic plan for strengthening mortality surveillance, and an action plan for implementing a more efficient sample registration system.
By streamlining data collection processes and ensuring better collaboration among stakeholders involved in death registration, ZNPHI hopes to achieve a more comprehensive picture of Zambia’s mortality landscape.
This will ultimately lead to improved public health planning, better allocation of resources, and a more effective response to future disease outbreaks.
By Catherine Pule
Kalemba March 21, 2024
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