At a glance
CDC partners with South Sudan’s Ministry of Health (MOH) to strengthen national responses to HIV, tuberculosis (TB), measles, polio, COVID-19, and other infectious diseases. CDC’s partnership and investments help strengthen capabilities in disease surveillance, laboratory systems, health information management, and public health workforce development.
Overview
CDC established an office in South Sudan in 2006, with an initial focus on HIV prevention through the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). CDC works closely with the MOH and partner organizations to address the following public health areas:
- HIV
- Tuberculosis (TB)
- Global health security
- Immunization
- Health systems strengthening
HIV and TB
Strategic focus
As a key implementer of PEPFAR, CDC works to build a sustainable national HIV response program and achieve the Global 95-95-95 goals for epidemic control. CDC collaborates with MOH, World Health Organization (WHO), UNAIDS, Global Fund, and other partners.
CDC supports comprehensive HIV programs including HIV testing services, prevention of mother-to-child transmission, EID, and antiretroviral treatment (ART). Activities focus on:
- Increasing access to quality HIV services.
- Minimizing interruptions in HIV treatment.
- Reaching viral load suppression among people living with HIV (PLHIV).
- Enhancing laboratory capacity and coverage of viral load and EID.
- Enhancing the quality and availability of HIV surveillance data.
TB is one of the leading causes of death for people living with HIV. TB preventive treatment (TPT) is an essential intervention to reduce illness and death among people living with HIV. CDC works with MOH and partners to increase TB screening and scale up TPT services, including ensuring sufficient quantity of supplies.
Key achievements
- By September 2023, CDC screened 97% of PLHIV on ART for TB.
- Up to 384 people were newly diagnosed with TB co-infection and started TB treatment.
- Up to 384 people were newly diagnosed with TB co-infection and started TB treatment.
- In 2023, CDC identified more than 6,735 new cases of HIV and linked the patients to treatment.
- In 2022, CDC supported MOH to launch the Incident Management System for HIV to accelerate progress toward HIV control.
Global health security
Strategic focus
CDC partners with MOH to develop sustainable national systems for disease surveillance, emergency preparedness, outbreak response, immunization, laboratory capacity, strategic information, and workforce development.
Surveillance systems
In response to COVID-19, CDC supported the public health emergency operations center (PHEOC) to establish the Data Management Unit. This unit is a first-of-its-kind data hub that generates quality outbreak data and informs decision-making, preparedness, and response. CDC also established COVID-19 surveillance and vaccination reporting modules within the District Health Information Software 2 platform to increase data availability and inform the response.
Laboratory systems
CDC is the sole U.S. agency that supports laboratory system development activities of MOH using PEPFAR resources. Activities have included:
- Ensuring a quality lab management system for HIV, early infant diagnosis (EID), and viral load (VL) testing.
- Establishing EID and VL testing laboratories.
- Developing national laboratory guidelines, policies and strategic plans.
- Enhancing sample referral systems to transport specimens to the testing laboratories.
- Establishing and maintaining laboratory information management systems.
- Training and mentorship of laboratory staff on management and technical skills.
- Improving biosafety and biosecurity through training, providing supplies, maintaining equipment, and regulating access to laboratories.
CDC and partners provided intensive training and mentorship that helped South Sudan’s HIV reference laboratory become the first and only laboratory in South Sudan to receive ISO 15189:2012 accreditation.
In response to COVID-19, CDC partnered with the MOH to decentralize and expand existing laboratory infrastructure for COVID-19 testing. This support resulted in a rapid scale-up in COVID-19 testing that led to identifying thousands of cases and contributed to effective case management. CDC also conducted a series of trainings for laboratory staff on COVID-19 prevention and control practices.
Workforce development
The Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP) strengthens the capacity of the public health workforce to detect, respond, and control disease outbreaks at the source. Two tiers of FETP—frontline and intermediate—train health professionals at county, state, and national levels to identify and contain outbreaks before they become epidemics. Participants develop critical skills in data collection, analysis, and translation of data into evidence-based recommendations. Graduates of South Sudan’s FETP-Frontline have led a series of investigations, responding to anthrax, hepatitis E, malaria, measles, meningitis, and acute watery diarrhea disease outbreaks in the country.
CDC leverages Project Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (Project ECHO) to expand health care worker's capacity in epidemiology, disease surveillance, diagnostics, treatment and case management, and prevention. Through a community of practice, healthcare workers are able to share experiences and best practices. Project ECHO currently serves as the only source of continuing medical education in the country across any health/public health program.
Emergency response
CDC and MOH established South Sudan's first national PHEOC in 2018. The establishment leveraged existing resources from the PEPFAR. Since then, PHEOC has led and coordinated several epidemic preparedness efforts and outbreak responses, including Ebola and COVID-19.
CDC provides technical and financial support to the MOH to train PHEOC staff on the Incident Management System. These trainings strengthen emergency management capabilities at the national and sub-national levels. CDC also provides technical assistance to South Sudan’s MOH in the areas of surveillance, laboratory systems, border health, risk communications, and advocacy.
CDC supports Ebola response preparedness activities, including epidemiology and disease surveillance, laboratory services, border health screening, and infection prevention and control.
Key achievements
- CDC supported the establishment of South Sudan’s Public Health Institute and National Public Health Emergency Operations Center in 2018.
- Over 144 staff have graduated from South Sudan's FETP.
- Over 3,800 healthcare workers have been trained through Project ECHO.
Immunization
Strategic focus
CDC works with MOH and partners to strengthen immunization systems and provide technical support. Additional partners include the WHO, African Field Epidemiology Network, and UNICEF.
CDC supports workforce capacity-strengthening for national and state immunization programs as part of the Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI). Health professionals participate in trainings on routine immunization, disease surveillance, cold-chain logistics, data management, communication, and other supplemental activities.
A CDC-supported national consultant provides technical direction to EPI and contributes to polio outbreak response and surveillance strengthening. CDC also supports planning for measles supplemental immunization activities to close immunity gaps and prevent outbreaks.
Key achievements
- Over 56 staff have been trained through EPI.
- CDC supported the distribution of more than 2 million COVID-19 vaccines through the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access initiative.