Africa CDC's blueprint to enhance early warning surveillance: accelerating implementation of event-based surveillance in Africa

Abstract

Event-based surveillance (EBS) is a core component of early warning surveillance. In 2018, Africa CDC developed the first edition of an event-based surveillance framework to guide African Union Member States in implementing EBS. Country experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the value of data from non-traditional sources for real time situational awareness; at the same time revealed the huge gaps in strengthening this arm of surveillance. Learning from these lessons and to begin to close those gaps, Africa CDC convened subject matter experts from African Union Member States and technical partners to develop the second edition of the EBS framework, 2023 and its training materials. The revised version includes additional sections such as, the multi-sectoral one health collaboration in EBS, monitoring and evaluation, cross border EBS, and use of event management systems. The current manuscript provides an overview of the 2023 Africa CDC EBS framework and highlights experience in two countries that have successfully employed this resource in their implementation efforts.

Keywords: Kenya; Zambia; early warning surveillance; event-based surveillance; framework; training manual.