Surveillance and control of arboviral diseases in the WHO African Region: assessment of country capacities

Overview

The growing threat and recent epidemics of Aedes-borne arboviral infections in Africa has put into question the adequacy of public health systems to control these vector-borne diseases. Adequacy relies on countries’ capacity to assure timely, effective epidemiological and entomological surveillance and control of arboviral diseases to identify, prevent and respond to outbreaks.

The Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), the WHO department of control of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) and the WHO Regional Office for Africa conducted a cross-sectional survey to determine the current capacity of countries in the Region. A self-administered questionnaire covering seven relevant domains was used to measure capacity.

All 47 countries in the African Region contributed to the survey, and all the results for each dimension at regional and sub-regional levels are reported in this publication.