Centres for Disease Control & Prevention set up in Africa to mitigate future outbreaks
South African health minister Aaron Motsoaledi says establishing Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Africa will ensure the continent is not caught by surprise with an outbreak such as Ebola.
Announcing a health cooperation agreement between Africa and China on Tuesday, the two health ministers, Motsoaledi and Lin Bin, said they realised the importance of establishing a resilient health system in Africa, which would include the creation of the CDC.
Chinese government has committed to build 100 health facilities in across Africa and to help establish disease control centres.
“We don’t want to wait for another disaster. So a CDC is going to be a form of surveillance, which will help us. It’s going to be Africa’s intelligence centre. The CDC will work as an intelligence centre for diseases, to tell us that if we don’t watch out, this is likely to happen. With the CDC, we as African countries will know what is about to happen. Unlike what happened with Ebola. We were caught napping there.” Motsoaledi said
Apart from a main CDC in the continent, each African region will have a centre in each countries which have laboratories that will be regarded as World Health Organisation [WHO] collaborating centres.
