CDC in Mozambique

Key accomplishments

• Worked with the GRM to help build surveillance and laboratory capacity to detect and respond to influenza, which was further leveraged and expanded to include SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and respiratory syncytial virus.
• Facilitated six reference laboratories in achieving international standard accreditation (ISO:15189).
• Supported training for 259 public health professionals through the Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP), and established a distance learning platform (Telesaude) to provide case management support using hotlines.
• Delivered over 17 million mosquito nets, 110 million rapid diagnostic tests and 89 fast-acting malaria medicines since 2007.
• Supported 12 polio vaccination campaign rounds, protecting over 13 million children nationwide from this life-threatening disease, and supported the closure of the wild poliovirus outbreak in 2024.

Global health security

CDC works with MOH and NIH to strengthen sustainable health systems that can promptly detect, notify, respond to, and contain infectious disease outbreaks at their source, through surveillance, health information systems, laboratory systems, public health emergency management, and workforce development.

CDC activities include:

• Supporting surveillance, testing of priority pathogens, and outbreak preparedness and response.
• Enhancing the availability, accessibility, quality, and use of program and public health data.
• Strengthening electronic health and laboratory information systems, including those for HIV and TB.
• Strengthening laboratory infrastructure, services, and systems, including for HIV and TB diagnosis and treatment monitoring.
• Conceptualizing research, conducting population-based and behavioral surveys, and strengthening disease surveillance.
• Promoting a country-owned, sustainable, and resilient health system.

Workforce development

CDC helped Mozambique establish FETP in 2010 which helps increase the country’s capacity to investigate and respond to disease outbreaks. FETP trains participants in applied epidemiology, laboratory management, data collection, and translation of data into evidence-based action. FETP fellows support MOH and NIH with HIV and TB surveillance, monitoring, and evaluation, outbreak investigation and emergency response.

Emergency response

CDC strengthens local capacity to detect, notify, respond to, and contain infectious disease outbreaks and other public health threats at their source, including the COVID-19, polio, cholera, and monkeypox responses. Activities have included strategic planning and coordination, disease surveillance, laboratory testing and quality assurance, infection prevention and control, vaccination campaigns, continuity of essential health services and clinical care, and water, sanitation, and hygiene interventions.

HIV and TB

As a key implementer of the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), CDC plays an essential role in the fight against HIV and TB. With unmatched scientific and technical knowledge and long-standing relationships with ministries of health, CDC is uniquely positioned to advance HIV, TB, and other global health security activities that keep Americans safe at home and abroad.

Through PEPFAR, CDC provides critical support to Mozambique's public health infrastructure, improving the country's ability to prevent, detect, and respond to HIV, TB, and other infectious diseases and minimizing their risk from entering the U.S.

Malaria

Mozambique faces a significant malaria risk, with its entire 32 million population vulnerable, particularly in the central and northern regions. CDC has collaborated with MOH, NPHI and other partners to support implementation of malaria prevention and control activities in Mozambique since 2007. These efforts aim to decrease malaria-related illness and deaths in the country, particularly in the provinces of Zambezia, Nampula, and Manica.

CDC-supported activities have included providing technical input in:

• Indoor residual spraying
• Mosquito monitoring to understand insecticide susceptibility, behavior, and population
• Providing malaria tests, antimalarials, and malaria preventive treatments
• Ensuring quality care of people with malaria
• Drug resistance monitoring to ensure antimalarials remain effective
• Supply chain management
• Social and behavioral change

Influenza

CDC has worked with the GRM to help build surveillance and laboratory capacity to detect and respond to influenza. This platform was leveraged and expanded to include SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, and respiratory syncytial virus. Mozambique is working to strengthen laboratories’ diagnostic capacity and preparedness to respond to influenza outbreaks by monitoring quality and performance standards.

Poliovirus outbreak response

Mozambique faces significant challenges in maintaining routine immunization coverage. From 2022-2024, the country was the epicenter of a wild poliovirus outbreak, with two concurrent vaccine-derived poliovirus outbreaks ongoing. CDC continues to support the nationwide polio response as a key partner in the Global Polio Eradication Initiative.

CDC has deployed epidemiologists and scientists to priority provinces to help detect polio cases and plan, implement, and monitor campaigns. Additionally, residents and graduates of Mozambique’s CDC-supported FETP have deployed nationwide to support active case finding and campaign monitoring.

CDC’s activities to prevent polio and respond to polio outbreaks include:

• Strengthening polio case finding, contact tracing and surveillance
• Coordinating and implementing vaccination campaigns
• Implementing vaccine uptake monitoring

Fact sheet

Mozambique Fact Sheet

Download the U.S. CDC in Mozambique fact sheet.

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Success stories

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