The US Center for Disease Control and Prevention is world famous for responding to epidemics with global impact, which the organization did when AIDS became the first major public health threat back in 1981 and most recently the Ebola virus emergency in West Africa.
The Atlanta based Center for Disease Control (CDC) reportedly will be franchising its program in the African continent where a similar program is being build to respond to emergency public health crisis and several facilities will be opened around the continent with Addis Ababa, Ethopia being the coordinating center, according to Time.
US Secretary of State John kerry has signed a memorandum of cooperation with the Afrian Union Commission Chairperson Nkosanzana Dlamini Zuma to lay the groundwork for the CDC to open in the continent. Like the U.S. CDC, there will be epidemiologists at the various locations who will perform disease surveillance, investigation and tracking of infection trends. The new unit will also provide response expertise during large outbreaks of disease.
“With the African CDC in place, these volunteers and others can be organized to form a deployable force ready to serve Member States during future health emergency responses on the continent,” said a CDC statement, as reported in Times.
