Advancing detection and response capacities for emerging and re-emerging pathogens in Africa

Jean B Nachega¹, Sabin Nsanzimana², Angeli Rawat³, Lindsay A Wilson⁴, Philip J Rosenthal⁵, Mark J Siedner⁶, Jay K Varma⁷, Peter H Kilmarx⁸, Leon Mutesa⁹, Marcel Tanner¹⁰, Agnes Binagwaho¹¹, Jamie Forrest⁴, Placide Mbala-Kingebeni¹², Jean-Jacques Muyembe-Tamfum¹², Francine Ntoumi¹³, Alimuddin Zumla¹⁴, Tulio de Oliveira¹⁵, Edward J Mills¹⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Science and Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa; Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA; Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA. Electronic address: jbn16@pitt.edu.
² University Teaching Hospital, Butare, Rwanda; University of Global Health Equity, Kigali, Rwanda.
³ Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada; School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
⁴ Platform Life Sciences, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Department of Real World and Advanced Analytics, Vancouver, Cytel, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
⁵ Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
⁶ Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; Faculty of Medicine, Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Mbarara, Uganda.
⁷ Department of Population Health Sciences, Weill Cornell Medicine, NY, USA.
⁸ Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
⁹ Center for Human Genetics, University of Rwanda, Kigali, Rwanda.
¹⁰ Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
¹¹ University of Global Health Equity, Kigali, Rwanda.
¹² National Institute for Bio-Medical Research, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo; University of Kinshasa School of Medicine, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
¹³ Fondation Congolaise pour la Recherche Médicale, Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo; Institute for Tropical Medicine, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
¹⁴ Division of Infection and Immunity, Centre for Clinical Microbiology, University College London, London, UK; NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.
¹⁵ School for Data Science and Computational Thinking, Faculty of Science and Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa; Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation, Faculty of Science and Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa.
¹⁶ Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada; Platform Life Sciences, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

PMID: 36563700
PMCID: PMC10023168
DOI: 10.1016/S1473-3099(22)00723-X

Review

Advancing detection and response capacities for emerging and re-emerging pathogens in Africa

Jean B Nachega et al. Lancet Infect Dis. 2023 May.

. 2023 May;23(5):e185-e189.

doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(22)00723-X. Epub 2022 Dec 20.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Department of Infectious Diseases and Microbiology, University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health, Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Science and Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa; Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA; Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA. Electronic address: jbn16@pitt.edu.
² University Teaching Hospital, Butare, Rwanda; University of Global Health Equity, Kigali, Rwanda.
³ Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada; School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
⁴ Platform Life Sciences, Vancouver, BC, Canada; Department of Real World and Advanced Analytics, Vancouver, Cytel, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
⁵ Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
⁶ Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA; Faculty of Medicine, Mbarara University of Science and Technology, Mbarara, Uganda.
⁷ Department of Population Health Sciences, Weill Cornell Medicine, NY, USA.
⁸ Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA.
⁹ Center for Human Genetics, University of Rwanda, Kigali, Rwanda.
¹⁰ Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland.
¹¹ University of Global Health Equity, Kigali, Rwanda.
¹² National Institute for Bio-Medical Research, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo; University of Kinshasa School of Medicine, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.
¹³ Fondation Congolaise pour la Recherche Médicale, Brazzaville, Republic of the Congo; Institute for Tropical Medicine, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
¹⁴ Division of Infection and Immunity, Centre for Clinical Microbiology, University College London, London, UK; NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.
¹⁵ School for Data Science and Computational Thinking, Faculty of Science and Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa; Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation, Faculty of Science and Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, South Africa.
¹⁶ Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact, Faculty of Health Sciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada; Platform Life Sciences, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

PMID: 36563700
PMCID: PMC10023168
DOI: 10.1016/S1473-3099(22)00723-X

Abstract

Recurrent disease outbreaks caused by a range of emerging and resurging pathogens over the past decade reveal major gaps in public health preparedness, detection, and response systems in Africa. Underlying causes of recurrent disease outbreaks include inadequacies in the detection of new infectious disease outbreaks in the community, in rapid pathogen identification, and in proactive surveillance systems. In sub-Saharan Africa, where 70% of zoonotic outbreaks occur, there remains the perennial risk of outbreaks of new or re-emerging pathogens for which no vaccines or treatments are available. As the Ebola virus disease, COVID-19, and mpox (formerly known as monkeypox) outbreaks highlight, a major paradigm shift is required to establish an effective infrastructure and common frameworks for preparedness and to prompt national and regional public health responses to mitigate the effects of future pandemics in Africa.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of interests JBN is supported by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH; grant numbers NIH/FIC 1R25TW011217-01, NIH/FIC 1D43TW010937-01A1, NIH/FIC D43TW011827-01A1, NIH/FIC 1R21TW011706-0, and NIH/NIAID 5U01AI096299-13). FN and AZ are Co-directors of the Pan-African Network on Emerging and Re-Emerging Infections funded by the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) within the EU Horizon 2020 Framework Programme. FN and AZ also acknowledge support from the EDCTP Central Africa Clinical Research Network. AZ is a UK National Institute for Health Research senior investigator, and a Mahathir Science Award and EU-EDCTP Pascoal Mocumbi Prize laureate. J-JM-T is supported by Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and holds NIH grants (NIH/NIAID grant number 75N91019D00024-P00001-759102000025-5). J-JM-T was part of the group that discovered the Ebola virus in 1976, and was awarded Le Prix Christophe Merieux from Institut de France in 2015 and was the recipient of the third Hideyo Noguchi Africa Prize for Medical Research in 2019 from the Japan Government, for his research to confront Ebola and other emerging and re-emerging pathogens, and for his efforts to train legions of disease fighters in Africa. All other authors declare no competing interests. TdO led the team of South African researchers who discovered the omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 in November, 2021.

References

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1. Maxmen A. Has COVID taught us anything about pandemic preparedness? Nature. 2021;596:332–335. - PubMed
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Advancing detection and response capacities for emerging and re-emerging pathogens in Africa

Affiliations

Advancing detection and response capacities for emerging and re-emerging pathogens in Africa

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

References

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources

Medical

Research Materials

Miscellaneous