Africa recently launched lab network, cholera taskforce. Can it help contain the disease?

The health ministers of African countries met in the last week of April 2024 in Kenya and launched two key initiatives: the Eastern Africa Regional Integrated Surveillance and Laboratory Network (RISLNET) and the Eastern Africa Regional Cholera Taskforce.

The ministers, from 14 countries in the wider Eastern Africa region and under the auspices of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), expressed concerns over the growing burden of infectious diseases, especially cholera, and called upon governments to work together. 

The goal of the Eastern Africa Regional Cholera Taskforce is to streamline regional strategies for cholera management and prevention, foster experience sharing and strengthen collective efforts to contain an outbreak, according to Africa CDC. 

“An average of 630 million years of life are lost in Africa due to the heavy disease burden,” the principal coordinator of the regional collaborating centres of Africa CDC, Justin Maeda, said. 

“If someone is expected to live up to 70 years and lives for 50 years, 20 years short of the expected full expectancy, that’s a loss in years of life. If one was supposed to live for 70 years of full production and 20 years is lost, then they are deemed to have lived for half their productivity,” said Maeda.

He emphasised the urgent need for African countries to address this economic failure, which amounts to an average of Ksh324 trillion ($2.4 trillion). 

“Due to this, we must take health as an investment, not a liability. We need to invest in that and use it as advocacy to ensure that more funds go to health and support the sector,” he noted, arguing that if the continent doesn’t have a healthy population and workforce, then it cannot drive the development agenda.

However, Maeda added that Africa has made some considerable progress, and it is important to build on this gain by enhancing community health responses.

Ali Haji Adam Abubakar, who is the Somalia Minister of Health and the current chairperson of the Regional Ministerial Steering Committee (ReSCo) for the Africa CDC Eastern Africa Regional Coordinating Centre, oversaw the two launches.

Abubakar said since the beginning of 2024, there were 62,175 cholera cases and 1,232 deaths till March 31, with a case-fatality ratio of 2 per cent, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Africa.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe accounted for 94.6 per cent (58,802) of the total cases and 95.7 per cent (1,179) of the total deaths this year.

He warned that if quick interventions are not rolled out, the ever-increasing threat of cholera will only spiral out of control and increase the disease burden associated with it. 

Kenya Health Cabinet Secretary Susan Nakhumicha hailed the Africa CDC for setting strategic priorities for 2023-27, including the two key initiatives in question. She said the strategic priorities will guide their activities and help achieve the common goal of keeping citizens across the region healthy and safe.

“We need to make true our commitment to this goal to safeguard our region and the continent,” Nakhumicha said, adding that disease and pandemic outbreaks know no borders, which makes collective interventions crucial to regional outbreaks.

The Kenyan health minister said enhancing surveillance and rapidly containing any disease threats are best practices that must continue, noting that the national public health institutes are the bedrock of the health system. “Let us discuss strategies to foster their capacity, foster innovation and promote excellence in research and surveillance,” she added. 

Meanwhile, the Eastern Africa RISLNET will leverage existing regional public health assets — including the surveillance and laboratory networks operated by public agencies, private organisations, foundations and universities — to create an integrated electronic network of regional surveillance platforms.

“RISLNET was established to coordinate and integrate all public health laboratory, surveillance and emergency response assets, including public health data, to effectively support prevention, rapid detection and response to current and emerging public health threats within the Eastern Africa region,” read the Africa CDC statement.

The Eastern Africa RISLNET will be integrated into the operations of the Africa CDC Regional Collaborating Centres to help facilitate close networking among national public health institutes, academic institutions, private and public laboratories, centres of excellence as well as non-governmental and civil society organisations. Other entities it aims to support include veterinary networks for developing and implementing regionally appropriate plans for antimicrobial resistance, pandemic preparedness and rapid response.

“The Eastern Africa RISLNET also seeks to promote partnerships and collaboration on public health research, training, knowledge exchange and experience sharing at the regional level in Africa,” the statement read.   

To support Africa CDC efforts, CS Nakhumicha announced that the Government of Kenya has approved access to 10 pieces of prime land and $2 million towards the construction of the Eastern Africa Regional Coordinating Centre in Nairobi.

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