AFRICA CDC
Africa's new continent-wide public health agency already faces funding crunch
Dakar — Africa’s new continent-wide public health agency — the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) — could help prevent a repeat of the disastrous ebola epidemic by monitoring diseases across country borders and deploying a rapid task force at the first signs of an outbreak, health experts say. The African Union (AU) launched Africa CDC on January 31 at its headquarters in Ethiopia. Epidemiologists began disease surveillance work there this month. The agency will have regional centres equipped for lab testing in Egypt, Nigeria, Gabon, Zambia and Kenya, and will expand an emergency volunteer corps, created during the Ebola epidemic, to thousands of health workers across the continent. "What the Africa CDC can truly contribute is to bring [international disease] response closer to the countries," said incoming director John Nkengasong, a virologist and senior official at the US CDC. The agency will focus on strengthening national health systems through its r...
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