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CDC Atlanta Agrees To Help Create African CDC
The multiple lessons learned from the Ebola epidemic in West Africa
are still being tallied, but one positive consequence appears to be
the creation of a new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in
Africa.
In an
April press release, the Atlanta-based CDC announced the signing of a
memorandum of agreement between US Secretary of State John Kerry
and Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, the chairperson of the African
Union Commission, an organization designed to spearhead Africa’s
development and integration.
According to CDC Director Tom Frieden, “The West African Ebola
epidemic reaffirmed the need for a public health institute to support
African ministries of health and other health agencies in their
efforts to prevent, detect, and respond to any disease outbreak. This
memorandum solidifies the commitment by the United States to advance
public health across Africa and global health security.”
According to a CDC press release, the African CDC is slated to launch
later this year with the establishment of an African Surveillance and
Response Unit, which will include an Emergency Operations Center. The
Unit will provide technical expertise and response coordination during
emergencies.
Through
the AU Support for Ebola Outbreak in West Africa (ASEOWA) mission, the
African Union sent over 800 medical volunteers and public health
responders to fight the Ebola epidemic in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra
Leone from September 2014 to February 2015. With the African CDC in
place, these volunteers and others can be organized to form a
deployable force ready to serve Member States during future health
emergency responses on the continent.
Collaborating Centers
The
African CDC will identify five Regional Collaborating Centers in the
five AU geographic regions to work with the African CDC Coordinating
Center in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Field epidemiologists will be among
the technical staff supporting both the Regional Collaborating Centers
and the African CDC Coordinating Center. The field epidemiologists
will be responsible for disease surveillance, investigations,
analysis, and reporting trends and anomalies.
Input
From Atlanta
The U.S.
CDC will provide technical expertise for the African CDC Surveillance
and Response Unit, as well as advise African CDC leadership in
strategic planning for future development. Specifically, two public
health experts from the U.S. CDC will be co-located at the African
Union to serve as long-term technical advisors to the African CDC.
Additionally, the U.S. CDC will support fellowships for 10 African
epidemiologists to help staff the African CDC Coordinating and
Regional Collaborating Centers.
The African CDC will seek ongoing collaboration of
other public health entities across the African continent and globally
to elevate health outcomes for all African citizens. Partners may
assist by implementing activities, supporting the establishment of the
Regional Collaborating Centers, advising the African CDC leadership
and staff, or by providing technical assistance. African CDC partners
may also strategically support professional associations to coordinate
programmatic activities across the public health domains.■
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Comments We've heard from
many of our readers in response to this article. Below
you will find some of their comments. To add your
comments to this story please use the form at the bottom of
the page.
This is a laudable innovation. The creation of an African CDC
will strengthen public health systems in Africa and build
capacities for public health emergency preparedness among
practitioners. The establishment of EOC will help in achieving
quick evidence based decisions and implementation of control
measures in the event of an outbreak. The African CDC in
collaboration with existing public health institutions in
Africa will help in coordinating responses to public health
emergencies in Africa so as to avoid duplication of efforts,
while neglecting other regions. With the presence of an
African CDC, a good disease surveillance network will be
established with specific surveillance indicators set and an
appropriate accountability framework in place. I am therefore
optimistic that the African CDC with a coordinating center in
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, will be a blessing to Africans and
together we will fight our common enemy - "emerging and
re-emerging public health diseases"
Olawuyi Kayode Abraham
abkay2008@yahoo.com
This is novel and welcome. Highly commendable. The initiative
should be implemented to the best standards possible. It will
surely benefit mankind.
Sylvanus Welle
sylvelle2002@yahoo.com
I am really excited about this post and what US CDC is
planning to do. I was the Senior Data Manager team lead on the
Ebola Response in Nigeria and worked from the Ebola EOC as
well. Currently the Data manager at the Polio Emergency
operations center in Nigeria. The EOC set up was modelled
after US CDC and WHO Geneva has played a great role in
handling public health issues expertly.
It will
be great to be updated on this so we can assist in whatever
way we can.
Tom Aba Daniel
dtomaba@gmail.com
This couldn't have come at a better time than now. It is a
welcome development which will strengthen the health systems
in African countries.
Ejoh, Ojong Ojong
ohjays2003@yahoo.com
This is wonderful idea and this partnership will go a long
way in strengthening the health system in Nigeria and other
African countries especially now that West Africa and the
world are trying hard to control the outbreak of EBOLA
epidemics.
Odo Chukwuemeka
aodo@afenet.net
This is a very good idea for CDC to establish the
Surveillance Emergency Operation Centres in West African
Countries in strenghtening surveillance system and outbreak
investigation activities for immediate control measures in
place and data generated for immediate public health actions.
SEOCs recruited should be based on public health experiences
of personnel and field epidemiologists as earlier mentioned to
reduce and minimize field errors. The officers at these
centres should have proper understanding in respect of
surveillance activities, outbreak investigation, vaccines
preventable diseases, and the non-communicable diseases in our
environment. A unit can also be created in this SEOCs to
handle non-commmunicable diseases because most of these
diseases are reemerging in the society such diabetes, cancer,
heart diseases and hypertension etc.
Ayanleke Halimatu Bolatito
aayanleke2@gmail.com
It's good and welcome development to African
epidemiological capacity in surveillance and outbreak
response.
Hamzat Umar Muhammad
hamzaumar752@yahoo.com
It's indeed a welcome development for Africans, a great
opportunity. Let us harness the potentials.
Dr. A.S.Umar
drjuma72@yahoo.com
A wonderful and revolutionary idea, highly welcomed.
IBRAHIM MOHAMMED KAITA
ibrahimkaita@yahoo.com, kaitaibrahim2014@gmail.com
As an offshoot of lessons learnt in the recent EVD outbreak,
African CDC should be designed as 4 subregional operational
Epi-centres coordinated by a regional Epi-centre. Each
subregional operational centre obtains information/data from
African countries within its subregion, analyses interprets
with dashboard mechanism, provides support for informed
decisionmaking through data, alerts the coordination centre
and feedback/feed forward in managing outbreaks of events or
disaster in the subregion. It also informs the coordination
Epi-centre when need for deployment of rapid response
team/force arises. The coordination Epi-centre plans and
harnesses all resources (including the lab component & lab
network for final characterization of agents involved) for
response and rehabilitation in the affected communities. This
model wound graciously alleviate the challenges encountered
during outbreaks and facilitate response to consequently and
tremendously reduce morbidity and mortality caused by the
outbreak. Hence, it is a laudable concept.
Badaru Sikiru Olanrewaju
badaru2001@yahoo.com
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