Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Nov;26(11):2555-2564.
doi: 10.3201/eid2611.191766.

Measuring Timeliness of Outbreak Response in the World Health Organization African Region, 2017-2019

Benido Impouma, Maroussia Roelens, George Sie Williams, Antoine Flahault, Claudia Torres Codeço, Fleury Moussana, Bridget Farham, Esther L Hamblion, Franck Mboussou, Olivia Keiser

Measuring Timeliness of Outbreak Response in the World Health Organization African Region, 2017-2019

Benido Impouma et al. Emerg Infect Dis. 2020 Nov.

Abstract

Large-scale protracted outbreaks can be prevented through early detection, notification, and rapid control. We assessed trends in timeliness of detecting and responding to outbreaks in the African Region reported to the World Health Organization during 2017-2019. We computed the median time to each outbreak milestone and assessed the rates of change over time using univariable and multivariable Cox proportional hazard regression analyses. We selected 296 outbreaks from 348 public reported health events and evaluated 184 for time to detection, 232 for time to notification, and 201 for time to end. Time to detection and end decreased over time, whereas time to notification increased. Multiple factors can account for these findings, including scaling up support to member states after the World Health Organization established its Health Emergencies Programme and support given to countries from donors and partners to strengthen their core capacities for meeting International Health Regulations.

Keywords: Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response strategy; WHO African Region; WHO Health Emergencies Programme; World Health Organization; communicable diseases; disease outbreaks; foodborne diseases; internally-displaced populations; outbreak response; refugee populations; time to control; time to detection; time to notification; vaccine-preventable diseases; vector-borne diseases; waterborne diseases.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Exclusion criteria used to select subset of substantiated disease outbreaks reported to the WHO African Region, 2017–2019. WHO, World Health Organization.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Geographic distribution of substantiated disease outbreaks selected in study of timeliness of key outbreak milestones in the WHO African Region, 2017–2019. CCHF, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever; WHO, World Health Organization. cVDPV2, circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa. WHO African Region country offices [in French] [cited 2019 Feb 17]. https://www.afro.who.int/countries
    1. World Health Organization. The African regional health report: the health of the people. 2017. [cited 2019 Feb 13]. https://www.who.int/bulletin/africanhealth/en/
    1. Impouma B, Archer BN, Lukoya OC, Hamblion EL, Fall IS. World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa weekly bulletin on outbreaks and other emergencies. Emerg Infect Dis. 2018;24:1394–5.
    1. Lopez AD, Mathers CD, Ezzati M, Jamison DT, Murray CJ. Global and regional burden of disease and risk factors, 2001: systematic analysis of population health data. Lancet. 2006;367:1747–57. 10.1016/S0140-6736(06)68770-9 - DOI - PubMed
    1. World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa. WHO Health Emergencies Programme [cited 2019 Apr 16]. https://www.afro.who.int/about-us/programmes-clusters/who-health-emergen...

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources