WHO introduces a tool for inspecting ship cleanliness
The approach is expected to improve ship sanitary inspection requirements; it was tested for four days in Istanbul.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) claims that by introducing a virtual reality (VR) tool for maritime cleanliness assessments, healthcare services on board and at ports would be improved.
A four-day trial of the VR solution was conducted in Istanbul with the goal of reducing the need for port health officials with training in several areas.
The WHO states that it is now essential to maintain public health capabilities at ships and harbours, particularly in light of the unusual effect of Covid-19.
The training, which was given to a team of 13 port health workers from Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan, took place from 27th to 30th November, 2023.
With the use of the simulation programme, employees will be able to instruct coworkers about how to carry out a comprehensive, end-to-end hygienic examination of the whole ship, encompassing contacts with the personnel as well as the captain and risk evaluation tasks.
The initiative’s technical coordinator at WHO/Europe, Kevin Carlisle, described ways in which the VR tool would enable communication throughout the vessel’s many technological departments.
According to Carlisle, the virtual tour starts at the inspector’s office where they may choose the personal protective equipment (PPE) to bring with them on the inspection. From there, they board the ship and meet the captain. They then visit the various parts of the ship, going from the tidy to the unclean ones. For example, they travel from the engine section and freight areas to the medical facility first. After that, they talk about the outcomes and have a conference with the captain.
The VR technology is expected to support the 41 IHR State Parties with recognised ports to give ship sanitation certificates, in addition to the more than 230 terminals in the WHO European Region with the necessary resources to manage health emergencies.
The advantages of the VR training were underlined by Huseyn Gasimov, head inspector of the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan’s sanitary quarantine services.
Gasimov claims that he and his colleagues found the virtual reality apparatus entirely on their own, and he believes that the usage of VR systems in training has a lot of promise. As a consequence of this training, he has gained a great deal of new knowledge and real-world experience in addition to making a lot of new friends and colleagues across the world. The participant expressed desire for more collaboration in the crucial area of preventative medicine and stopping the development of particularly serious illnesses.
The WHO claims that the testing studies were a component of a number of capacity-building programmes that the organisation financed at ports, airports, and land crossings in order to support border health in the area.
