ECDC4Africa CDC – latest updates: November 2023 to January 2024
Please find below the latest updates on the ECDC4Africa CDC project.
Info Stand of the project at ESCAIDE 2023, 22–24 November 2023, Barcelona, Spain
From November 22 to 24 2023, the collaborative project between the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) was featured at ESCAIDE in Barcelona. The project team's information stand served as a platform to disseminate the project’s work, engage with conference attendees, and gather valuable feedback. The team actively sought collaboration and feedback during the event to establish connections with ESCAIDE participants.
ECDC attend the Third International Public Health Conference in Africa, 25–30 November 2023, Lusaka, Zambia
From 25 to 30 November 2023, the ECDC project team attended the Third International Public Health Conference in Africa under the theme ‘Breaking Barriers: Repositioning Africa in the Global Health Architecture’. The Epidemic Intelligence teams of Africa CDC and ECDC presented a poster titled: ‘Cross-continental collaboration in event-based surveillance: the experience of monitoring open sources at the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control’. The poster described how the teams have been working in the area of threat detection and information-sharing.
Visit of Africa CDC Public Health Emergency Management Fellows to ECDC and Emergency Operation Centre, Lithuania, 15–19 January 2024
The five-day study tour, which included a visit to the Lithuanian Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) in Vilnius, was attended by five Africa CDC Public Health Emergency Management (PHEM) fellows from Ethiopia, Mozambique, Tanzania, Nigeria, and Kenya, as well as three Africa CDC experts and representatives from ECDC, EU Member States, and WHO Europe.
The main objective of the study tour was for the fellows to improve their understanding of how public health emergency response is designed and supported at the EU level. The visit included presentations and discussions on preparedness plans, response activities, EOC management, and the EU’s emergency decision-making processes.
Visit of Africa CDC to the First Annual EU Health Task Force and various project meetings, Stockholm, 24–26 January 2024
Africa CDC representatives were invited to attend the first annual meeting of the EU Health Task Force (EUHTF) that took place at ECDC, with the aim of creating awareness around this newly established mechanism, as well as generating engagement and ownership among EU/EEA Member States. Africa CDC was invited to share their experience on the emergency taskforce in Africa (African Health Volunteers Corps, AVoHC). This was also an opportunity for the new Head of Surveillance of Africa CDC to meet ECDC colleagues working on the project and to discuss the implementation of the planned activities as well as brainstorm future ways of collaboration.
