As part of a 14-month project, the RKI is participating in an initiative that advocates an integrated approach to the early detection of potential disease outbreaks. Significant progress has been made on the African continent in the last decade, for example through the expansion of laboratory capacities. On the other hand, Africa still has to cope with most health emergencies worldwide. The project “Health Security Partnership in Africa” (HSPA), which is funded by Global Affairs Canada, is therefore committed to improving surveillance systems.

In the frame of a cooperation between WHO Hub for Pandemic and Epidemic Intelligence, WHO AFRO, WHO EMRO, Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and the RKI, the involved stakeholders have partnered up with six initial countries to implement activities to strengthen national health systems. The Centre for International Health Protection supports Morocco, Namibia, South Africa and Tunisia in the areas of “Epidemic Intelligence” (unit ZIG 1) and “Genomic Surveillance” (unit ZIG 4). To this end, the focus is currently on the development of road maps and, in the next step, for instance on the joint development of dashboards for the monitoring of potential disease outbreaks as well as targeted initiatives to strengthen capacities in pathogen genomics for laboratory staff.