ECDC and Africa CDC strengthen surveillance collaboration during meeting in Stockholm
From 23–26 April 2024, experts from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) met in Stockholm, Sweden, to exchange expertise on surveillance, data management and epidemic intelligence.
One of the meeting’s key objectives was to address Africa CDC’s 2024 priorities, spanning various crucial areas such as antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance, emerging food- and vector-borne diseases, healthcare-associated infections (HAI) surveillance, antimicrobial consumption surveillance, and risk communication.
Key highlights of the exchange included discussions on antimicrobial resistance (AMR) surveillance methodologies. ECDC experts presented the organisational structure of the European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Network (EARS-Net). In turn, Africa CDC shared insights into their AMR framework and the establishment of the Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Network (AMRSNET) in Africa.
Another focus area was the surveillance of food- and waterborne diseases and zoonotic diseases. ECDC provided an overview of their monitoring mechanisms and rapid risk assessment processes. Africa CDC showcased their collaboration with the AU-Inter-African Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) in setting up an interagency group on One Health.
Discussions also delved into emerging and vector-borne disease surveillance, HAI surveillance systems and methodologies, AMC surveillance, and joint surveillance efforts between ECDC and the World Health Organization (WHO) for diseases like HIV, TB and respiratory infections.
The visit concluded with a presentations and discussions on European Antibiotic Awareness Day and World AMR awareness Week, as well as on risk communication principles and examples from both organisations.
The gathering underscored ECDC and Africa CDC’s commitment to strengthening health security through collaborative efforts, knowledge exchange and capacity building in surveillance and response capabilities.
Galit Andersson, from ECDC, said: “We are delighted by the progress made during our collaborative exchange with colleagues from the African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Most of our discussions focussed on One Health, which is a priority for both agencies and is a good example of the importance of both integration of indictor-based and event-based surveillance and cross-sector collaboration. I think it was a fantastic learning opportunity for both Africa CDC and ECDC staff.”
Background
The ‘EU for Health Security: ECDC for Africa CDC’ project, initiated in January 2021, aims to fortify health security in Africa by facilitating knowledge exchange between ECDC to Africa CDC, particularly in preparedness and response to health threats. One of the project’s key objectives is to support Africa CDC in harmonising indicator-based surveillance (IBS) and event-based surveillance (EBS) across the continent.
