Strengthening disease surveillance is a prerequisite for health security. Much progress has been made in disease surveillance across Africa over the past decade, but it is noteworthy that it suffers from more outbreaks and other health emergencies than others, many of which can be prevented or controlled through proven health interventions. the public. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the critical role of the public health laboratory in surveillance as well as the need to advance data collection, management, reporting and dissemination to ensure evidence-based policy-making during health security emergencies.
In response, the Africa Health Security Partnership is improving integrated disease surveillance capabilities across the continent in order to better detect, confirm and report health security threats. d said Yenio Kebede, chief of laboratory systems and networks at the CDC for Africa.
With a shared commitment in supporting African countries to strengthen health systems and protect public health, the WHO Regional Offices for Africa and the Eastern Mediterranean are working closely with the CDC in Africa under the Joint Emergency Action Plan (JEAP) to strengthen public health surveillance, and strengthening regional cooperation, addressing health challenges in Africa. The Africa Health Security Partnership will contribute to the overall collaborative framework by achieving tangible results in the areas of emergency preparedness and response, surveillance and laboratory capacity, and helping to protect the health of people in Africa through a better coordinated and more resilient health system.
“Our collective ability to prevent, prepare for, and respond to health security emergencies remains critical to keeping our communities safe,” said Sarah Hersey, director of collaborative intelligence at the WHO’s Center for Epidemic Intelligence and Epidemiology. “Through this partnership, WHO remains dedicated to working with Member States to systematically strengthen our capabilities and collaboration across stakeholders, sectors and borders for more effective and collaborative disease surveillance in Africa.”
Funded by the Government of Canada’s Arms Threat Reduction Programme, and in line with the health security objectives of the G7-led Global Partnership to Combat the Proliferation of Weapons and Materials of Mass Destruction, the Africa Health Security Partnership signals a collective commitment to health cooperation as a security interface and will play a catalytic role in Accelerate the building and pooling of capacities and expertise for disease surveillance and epidemiological intelligence in and for Africa.