Africa Centre For Disease Control and Prevention CDC hits COVID-19
Africa CDC
At the wave of outbreak of the Coronavirus Pandemic the African Union Centre for Disease Control and prevention is not at the back seat of the fight the Union through Africa CDC from information available of the official website of the African Union shows that
Africa CDC activated its Emergency Operations Center and its Incident Management System (IMS) for the COVID-19 outbreak on 27 January 2020. The second Africa CDC Incident Action Plan (IAP) for COVID-19 covering a one month period from 13 February to 12 March 2020 has been developed.
From 6-8 February 2020 in Senegal, Africa CDC trained 16 African laboratories to diagnose SARS-CoV-2 virus using PCR: Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, DRC, Egypt, Ethiopia, the Gambia, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Morocco, Senegal, South Africa, Tunisia, Uganda, and Zambia. Each trainee received a kit that can run 100 tests for COVID-19. A second training for 19 additional African laboratories was held on 20-22 February 2020 in South Africa in partnership with the National Institute for Communicable Diseases.
Africa CDC is coordinating with partners to establish sequencing capacity in six African reference laboratories, as well as external quality assessment and proficiency testing for all laboratories with COVID-19 testing capacity.
Member States can use WHO’s existing specimen referral network for influenza to ship their specimens to laboratories with capacity to test for COVID-19. For a full list of laboratories in Africa and how to submit specimens, Member States should contact the WHO country office and Africa CDC at yenewk@africa-union.org.
Africa CDC is working to train and deploy epidemiologists at headquarters and within the Regional Collaborating Centres for daily event tracking, risk analysis, and generation of critical information to inform Member States response and control efforts.
Africa CDC has been working with Member States to build infection prevention and control capacities in healthcare facilities and with the airline sector to support screening of travelers. The first IPC training, targeting 15 Member States, took place from 20-21 February 2020 in Abuja, Nigeria.
Africa CDC is holding weekly updates with national public health institutes in Member States and has formed working groups for high priority areas of coronavirus control, including: surveillance; laboratory diagnosis; infection prevention and control; clinical care; and risk communication.
Africa CDC in collaboration with WHO provided Training of Trainers (TOT) for participants coming from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana,
Kenya, Mauritius, Mauritania, Nigeria, Niger, Zambia, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, South Africa, Tunisia and Zambia to enhance surveillance at points of entry for COVID-19. The 2nd round training was conducted from 18-20 February 2020.
Africa CDC pledged to continue to provision of
updated and relevant information to Member States as the outbreak evolves.
The Africa CDC has further made recommendations to members states in the following to include that:
All Member States should enhance their surveillance for severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) and to carefully review any unusual patterns of SARI or pneumonia cases. Examples of enhanced surveillance include:
1. Adding questions about travel and testing for coronaviruses to existing influenza surveillance systems
2. Notifying healthcare facilities to immediately inform local public health officials about persons who meet the case definition for SARI and recently traveled to Wuhan (or other affected countries).
All Member States should activate their Emergency Operations Centers and rapid response teams for COVID-19, and exercise their emergency response systems for readiness.
Member States that receive direct or connecting flights from China should screen incoming passengers for severe respiratory illness and a history of recent travel to Wuhan and/or mainland China. Member States should be prepared to expand questions about recent travel to additional countries as the outbreak evolves.
Notify WHO and Africa CDC immediately if suspected or confirmed cases of infection with novel coronavirus are identified. Africa CDC should be notified by emailing AfricaCDCEBS@africa-union.org.
5.Prepare to collect specimens from patients suspected of having novel coronavirus infection. Interim guidance on specimen collection and handling is available from WHO at https://www.who.int/health-topics/coronavirus/laboratory-diagnostics-for-novel-coronavirus.
Provide guidance to the general public about seeking immediate medical care and informing healthcare providers about recent travel in anyone who develops symptoms of severe respiratory illness and recently traveled to Wuhan or one of the affected areas.
