New Advisory Group on Surveillance to Boost Africa’s Health Security

Improvements in the forecasting, monitoring, identification, and reporting of diseases are expected to take hold following the establishment of the Continental Surveillance Advisory Group (CSAG), aimed at bolstering Africa’s disease surveillance capabilities.

This was among the key outcomes of a meeting hosted from 23 to 25 April 2025 by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), which brought together surveillance directors from 47 African Union Member States.

The meeting led to the identification of priority pathogens, including emerging and re-emerging diseases like mpox and cholera, as well as other diseases targeted for eradication. It also resulted in the development of a roadmap to strengthen indicator-based surveillance at Africa CDC.

These initiatives support Africa CDC’s core mandate to monitor public health events across the continent, driving informed and timely public health actions. They also represent a significant step in evolving the institution’s surveillance system, focusing on proactive surveillance, intelligence gathering, and early warning systems, key elements of its five-year strategic roadmap.

The CSAG will play a crucial role in guiding Africa CDC’s development and implementation of this enhanced surveillance strategy.

“Data quality, timeliness, and completeness remain major challenges in Africa, posing serious limitations to countries and regional institutions in making better analyses or informed decisions and allocating resources,” said Dr Merawi Aragaw, Head of the Surveillance and Disease Intelligence Division at Africa CDC.

To address these challenges, efforts are underway to strengthen surveillance systems on multiple fronts, including coordination, disease forecasting, monitoring, evaluation, and leveraging data for targeted public health actions and optimised resource allocation.

Despite progress in event-based surveillance, case-based and indicator-based systems remain underdeveloped at the continental level, highlighting the critical need for a more integrated and resilient surveillance infrastructure.

Dr Allan Muruta, the newly elected CSAG Chairperson and Commissioner of Integrated Epidemiology, Surveillance, and Public Health Emergencies for Uganda, emphasised the importance of collaboration. “During my term, advocating for the implementation of surveillance standards and advancing digitalisation and health information exchange will be central to our efforts in fostering a healthy and prosperous Africa,” he said.

Africa CDC will continue collaborating with surveillance experts across the continent and the CSAG to develop a strategic framework that guides improvements in indicator-based surveillance.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).