CDC in Côte d'Ivoire

Overview

CDC established an office in Côte d’Ivoire in 1987. CDC Côte d’Ivoire works closely with the Government of Côte d’Ivoire and partner organizations to address the following public health areas:

• Global health security
• HIV
• TB
• Malaria
• Influenza

Global health security

Strategic focus

CDC provides expert support to Côte d’Ivoire's Ministry of Health and Public Hygiene (MSHP) and Ministry of Education and Research to strengthen public health capabilities. These capabilities are primarily the four core global health security areas: disease surveillance systems, laboratory networks, workforce development, and emergency management.

Surveillance

CDC provides technical and financial support to strengthen community-based early warning and detection capacities. CDC has conducted 31 workshops on surveillance data analysis, which improved measles outbreak detection and response.

CDC provides financial support for outbreak investigations of health threats, including avian influenza and unknown causes of illnesses and death. CDC also supported the availability of tools, surveillance forms and sampling kits in health centers.

CDC supports sample transportation to help ensure samples of suspect cases of epidemic prone diseases get to the lab as quickly and safely as possible for confirmatory testing. Over 1,500 samples were transported with CDC's support in 2023.

In addition, CDC trains healthcare workers in HIV and epidemic prone disease surveillance, detection, and case management. In 2023, CDC trained 459 community health workers in event-based surveillance and community-based disease surveillance.

Laboratory systems strengthening

CDC supports central and regional laboratories to test for and confirm diseases that could become public health threats.

Previous collaborations between CDC and MSHP to decentralize diagnosis of epidemic disease pathogens and strengthen community-based surveillance were critical to the COVID-19 response. CDC staff at the Retrovirus Côte d’Ivoire (Retro-CI) laboratory provided direct COVID-19 testing support early in the response. CDC continues to support all 11 regional laboratories in routine microbiology testing.

CDC supported the development of the national laboratory strategic plan and national biosafety and biosecurity training modules. CDC also supported the development of updated national handbooks on infectious materials transport as well as biosafety and biosecurity.

Workforce development

CDC supports training disease detectives through the Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) to build the country's public health workforce. Through FETP, CDC strengthens capacity at district, regional and national levels to detect, prevent, and respond to illnesses with epidemic potential. Cote d’Ivoire has all three levels of FETP training: frontline, intermediate, and advanced. Graduates work at all government levels in the human, animal, and environmental health sectors throughout Côte d'Ivoire.

Emergency response

CDC helped establish and continues to support Côte d'Ivoire's national Public Health Emergency Operations Center (PHEOC) and six regional EOCs. PHEOCs have contributed to various responses, including dengue, measles, COVID-19, mpox, and food poisonings.

CDC increases preparedness for Ebola and other diseases of epidemic potential through training and simulation exercises.

During the 2024 Africa Cup of Nations Football Tournament held in Cote d’Ivoire, CDC supported heightened surveillance, preparedness, and response capacity for public health threats in two of the five regions where the tournament was played.

Key achievements

• Helped establish 6 regional PHEOCs to respond to disease threats.
• More than 520 public health workers graduated from FETP program since 2016. This includes:
  • 481 graduates in the Frontline program.
  • 29 graduates in FETP-Intermediate.
  • 12 graduates in FETP-Advanced.
• Supported surveillance trainings for community health workers and regional trainers since 2021.

HIV and TB

Strategic focus

CDC is a key implementer of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. CDC works with the MSHP and partners to accelerate progress towards epidemic control through the following activities:

• Prioritize HIV testing efforts among population groups with disproportionately poor health outcomes or higher risk of infection.
• Increase linkage, continuity of treatment, and quality of HIV services.
• Strengthen program monitoring and disease surveillance.
• Enhance data availability, quality, and use for decision-making.
• Strengthen laboratory systems through training, decentralized services, external quality control programs, and a national viral load dashboard.
• Increase HIV literacy and decrease HIV-related stigma and discrimination.
• Support clinics to identify, treat, and prevent TB among people living with HIV.

Key achievements

• More than 91% of people living with HIV are on antiretroviral treatment.
• An external quality control program was established for the country’s more than 3,000 HIV testing sites.
• Côte d’Ivoire is the first country in West Africa and in Francophone Africa to participate in the Extension for Community Health Care Outcomes (Project ECHO).

Malaria

Strategic focus

Malaria is the leading cause of mortality among children in Côte d’Ivoire. Malaria also continues to be the top reason for medical consultations and hospitalizations.

CDC is a co-implementer of the U.S. President's Malaria Initiative (PMI) with United States Agency for International Development. Through a PMI advisor, CDC works with the National Malaria Control Program to support effective malaria control and prevention interventions. These include:

• Long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets
• Indoor residual spray
• Quality assurance of diagnostics and case management
• Prevention of malaria during pregnancy

Key achievements

Since 2017, CDC's support through PMI has helped deliver:

• Over 5 million mosquito nets
• Nearly 3 million malaria preventive treatments in pregnancy
• Training to over 2,100 clinical providers in malaria prevention
• Insecticide to spray 185,000 homes

Immunization

CDC collaborates with numerous partners to support routine vaccination, polio vaccination, and outbreak responses.

CDC collaborated with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to establish the polio emergency center. CDC also collaborates to train staff and support polio case investigation and vaccination.

CDC has provided support for measles vaccination in response to outbreaks. Through the Global Vax initiative, CDC provided technical and financial support to accelerate COVID-19 vaccination. Leveraging capacity built during the COVID-19 response, CDC has supported the integration of COVID-19 vaccination into Côte d’Ivoire’s routine vaccination program.

Influenza

CDC works with Côte d'Ivoire to strengthen surveillance and laboratory capacities to prevent, detect, and respond to influenza threats. Since 2007, CDC's influenza experts have partnered with the Institute National d'Hygiene Publique (INHP) and the Pasteur Institute of Côte d'Ivoire (IPCI) to support influenza surveillance, detection, and pandemic preparedness. This partnership led to recognition of the IPCI as a WHO National Influenza Center.

CDC and partners support a national influenza surveillance network across 10 sentinel sites. Côte d'Ivoire contributes significantly to the WHO Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System, advancing the understanding of influenza seasonality and epidemiology in West Africa.

Key achievements

• INHP received a 5-year CDC cooperative agreement for enhanced surveillance and laboratory capacity.
  • This will help to routinely monitor influenza and other respiratory pathogens of public health importance.
• Established a system to estimate the burden and severity of influenza, update protocols, and increase epidemiological surveillance in hospitals and health centers.
• Integrated surveillance of influenza and COVID-19 with a standardized handbook in ten sentinel sites through the country.

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