Global Health

• Completed 5-year strategic planning for 17 countries designated as
  Phase I under the Global Health Security Agenda so that we can help
  develop health systems that prevent avoidable epidemics, detect
  threats early, and respond rapidly and effectively.
• Established a Global Rapid Response Team that contributed to 5
  outbreak responses in Gabon, Indonesia, Sierra Leone, and Tanzania.
• Reached the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goal of
  starting 15 million people on lifesaving HIV treatment by 2015 (nine
  months ahead of schedule) through CDC’s work with PEPFAR.
• Reached World Health Organization’s milestone of having zero cases
  of polio in Africa after Nigeria marked a full year without a new case of
  naturally occurring polio. Now, only Pakistan and Afghanistan still have
  naturally occurring polio cases.
• Launched the Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) Surveillance
  Training for Ebola Preparedness (STEP) in West African high-risk
  countries without Ebola to improve their ability to rapidly collect
  and analyze health data. FETP now reaches more than 60 countries.
• Prevented 1.2 billion malaria cases and 6.2 million malaria deaths
  since 2001 through efforts of CDC and partners in the President’s
  Malaria Initiative, the Global Fund, and Roll Back Malaria.

As efforts progress to eliminate the largest Ebola epidemic in history, CDC is working to ensure West Africa has the ability to prevent future outbreaks as well. CDC launched the Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) Surveillance Training for Ebola Preparedness (STEP) in high-risk countries like Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea Bissau, Mali, and Senegal before these countries are affected.

FETP-STEP targets surveillance officers in high-risk districts who are often the first point of contact for hearing about people becoming sick with a disease, compiling data and reporting on who is affected, outbreak detection, and response. The training not only improves Ebola prevention, but the prevention of other infectious diseases as well.

STEP includes an interactive workshop with group exercises, three weeks of field work in the participants’ home districts, and another intensive workshop in which participants present their work. CDC will soon have nearly 200 public health workers trained in Ebola preparedness throughout West Africa. Trainees indicate the course has helped them better understand their role in collecting data and, most of all, has strengthened their ability to analyze and share health data that could make the difference in catching the next outbreak before it becomes an epidemic.