Enhancements within the forecasting, monitoring, identification, and reporting of illnesses are anticipated to take maintain following the institution of the Continental Surveillance Advisory Group (CSAG), geared toward bolstering Africa’s illness surveillance capabilities.
This was among the many key outcomes of a gathering hosted from 23 to 25 April 2025 by the Africa Centres for Illness Management and Prevention (Africa CDC), which introduced collectively surveillance administrators from 47 African Union Member States.
The assembly led to the identification of precedence pathogens, together with rising and re-emerging illnesses like mpox and cholera, in addition to different illnesses focused for eradication. It additionally resulted within the improvement of a roadmap to strengthen indicator-based surveillance at Africa CDC.
These initiatives help Africa CDC’s core mandate to watch public well being occasions throughout the continent, driving knowledgeable and well timed public well being actions. In addition they characterize a major step in evolving the establishment’s surveillance system, specializing in proactive surveillance, intelligence gathering, and early warning programs, key parts of its five-year strategic roadmap.
The CSAG will play a vital function in guiding Africa CDC’s improvement and implementation of this enhanced surveillance technique.
“Knowledge high quality, timeliness, and completeness stay main challenges in Africa, posing severe limitations to international locations and regional establishments in making higher analyses or knowledgeable selections and allocating sources,” mentioned Dr Merawi Aragaw, Head of the Surveillance and Illness Intelligence Division at Africa CDC.
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To handle these challenges, efforts are underway to strengthen surveillance programs on a number of fronts, together with coordination, illness forecasting, monitoring, analysis, and leveraging information for focused public well being actions and optimised useful resource allocation.
Regardless of progress in event-based surveillance, case-based and indicator-based programs stay underdeveloped on the continental degree, highlighting the important want for a extra built-in and resilient surveillance infrastructure.
Dr Allan Muruta, the newly elected CSAG Chairperson and Commissioner of Built-in Epidemiology, Surveillance, and Public Well being Emergencies for Uganda, emphasised the significance of collaboration. “Throughout my time period, advocating for the implementation of surveillance requirements and advancing digitalisation and well being info trade shall be central to our efforts in fostering a wholesome and affluent Africa,” he mentioned.
Africa CDC will proceed collaborating with surveillance consultants throughout the continent and the CSAG to develop a strategic framework that guides enhancements in indicator-based surveillance.
