NAIROBI, March 28 (Xinhua) -- The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), a public health agency of the African Union, on Tuesday launched a set of tools to boost the continent's surveillance against future pandemics.
Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, the acting director of Africa CDC, said the tools include a framework and a scorecard to assess objectively the capability of AU members to implement robust early warning and response mechanisms against disease outbreaks.
"We have also launched a training package for the continent's health workforce involved in the early detection of contagious diseases," Ouma told a regional forum in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi.
He also unveiled a monitoring and evaluation tool that can be used to assess the progress achieved toward accurate collection and interpretation of information regarding health events or risks.
Yenew Kebede, acting head of the Division of Surveillance and Disease Intelligence at the Africa CDC, said that the continent is in dire need of a robust early warning health system because the region struggles to contain pandemics.
"What happened with the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the urgency of strengthening early warning and response health systems," he added.
