In March 2017, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) and partners established the Regional Integrated Surveillance and Laboratory Networks (Africa CDC RISLNET). These surveillance and laboratory networks will be supported by the Africa CDC’s five Regional Collaborating Centers (RCCs) in Egypt, Nigeria, Gabon, Zambia, and Kenya in collaboration with all available public health assets in their regions. These assets include universities, national public health institutes, public and private laboratories, centres of excellence, non-governmental organisations, and veterinary networks. Africa CDC RISLNET will serve as the platform to implement Africa CDC’s five-year strategic plan. Between 2017 and 2018, RISLNET will support countries and regions to map existing surveillance and laboratory networks, including private laboratories.

“To prevent, detect and rapidly respond to emergencies we need strong partnerships to timeously, effectively and efficiently deploy public health assets across Africa. Strengthened collaboration among Africa’s laboratory systems is a prerequisite for building a resilient continental health security architecture”, said Prof Alash’le Abimiku, Executive Director of the International Research Centre of Excellence (IRCE) at the Institute of Human Virology Nigeria (IHVN), Professor at the Institute of Human Virology, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore and board chair of the African Society for Laboratory Medicine during the launch of the network in March 2017.

The Africa CDC is also committed to combating resistance to antibiotics, which is estimated to cause about four million deaths per year in Africa by 2050. To address this severe threat, Africa CDC also launched the Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Network (Africa CDC AMRSNET). This new network will work closely with the World Health Organisation’s Global Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Systems to strengthen surveillance capacity on the continent through regional task-based and structured mentorship programmes. The Africa CDC will use proven models of medical education to build a community of practice to fight antimicrobial resistance, providing better care to more people where they live.