Stories of Impact

Highlighting how collaborative public health action strengthens Africa’s resilience and saves lives across the continent.

Emergency Response and Preparedness
Public Health Emergency Management Fellowship Provides Real-life Immersion

Two cohorts of Public Health Emergency Management Fellows have so far been released by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) across the continent. These 27 fellows, consisting of eight from Cohort 1 and nineteen from Cohort 2, have the mandate to build a robust workforce capable ...

Antimicrobial Resistance
Rallying Call for Fair Access to Relevant AMR Countermeasures for Africa

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) continues to escalate into one of the most pressing global health threats of our time. In response, Africa CDC convened the first-ever continental meeting on access to antimicrobials, diagnostics, and vaccines as countermeasures to AMR, bringing together ...

Surveillance and Disease Intelligence
Behind the Traces: The Unseen Workforce Holding Back Mpox

Rolling back the ongoing mpox outbreak across Africa rests on a deceptively simple principle: tracing every case and isolating every contact – from casual interactions to close physical contact. Yet even as African countries gain experience in identifying and confirming ...

Emergency Response and Preparedness
Making Laws Work in Times of Public Health Emergencies

A string of crises, from HIV and Ebola to COVID-19 and mpox, has shaped the public health landscape in Africa. Further worsened by recurring threats of infectious diseases and climate-induced health challenges, each of these emergencies has shown that medical ...

Digital Disease Surveillance
The Digital Sentinel

Africa’s Experts Unite to Transform Primary Health Care through Digitalization  Africa’s public health story is at a turning point. The continent has shown remarkable unity in recent crises, from coordinating a multi-country response to mpox to advancing a continental framework for ...

Africa’s Health Security and Sovereignty (AHSS)
Women Transform Health Security in Somalia

Somalia’s health system, after years of conflict, still grapples with limited funding and recurrent climate-related crises. In the aftermath, weak surveillance and minimal community-level reporting persist, hampering the detection and response to threats such as cholera, measles and respiratory infections. The Africa ...

Africa CDC Bingwa Plus Initiative
Nod for Youth’s YES! Health Strategy

African youth are often excluded from health services, governance and leadership at all levels. But this is beginning to change. Africa CDC’s new plan gives visibility and opportunity to the young leaders and changemakers already improving health in their communities. Africa CDC ...

Genomics and Bioinformatics
Strides in Integrating Genomics into Existing Public Health Frameworks

Six countries have so far launched their national strategies on genomics in Africa. Ghana, Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Nigeria have already made strides in integrating genomics into their existing public health frameworks. Eleven countries have finalised their plans and are waiting to launch. These are the ...

Biosafety and Biosecurity
Africa’s New Five-Year Plan for Biosafety and Biosecurity

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has unveiled the Biosafety and Biosecurity Strategy 2026–2030, marking a new era in Africa’s pursuit of safe science, responsible innovation and resilient health security systems. The new strategy builds on ...

Surveillance and Disease Intelligence
Protecting African Communities Through Wastewater Environmental Surveillance

In Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso’s capital, scientists at the National Public Health Institute examine cloudy water collected from city drains. These samples hold valuable information for public health. For Professor Isidore Bonkoungou, a bacteriology and virology specialist, this careful work marks ...

Event-Based Surveillance
Eswatini Strengthens Epidemic Intelligence with New Event-Based Surveillance Guidelines

As the world continues to grapple with emerging and re-emerging health threats, the Kingdom of Eswatini has taken a decisive step towards strengthening its epidemic intelligence systems with the launch of its National Event-Based Surveillance (EBS) Guidelines. The new framework, developed by the ...

Emergency Response and Preparedness
Rift Valley Fever Makes a Comeback in Senegal and Mauritania

It may have begun with the virus becoming active in the local mosquito population, prompted by heavy rains followed by warm weather — ideal conditions for the mosquitoes responsible for spreading the virus. Already present in the region, Rift Valley Fever (RVF) ...