CDC in Tanzania

Overview

CDC established an office in Tanzania in 2001 to support HIV prevention. The CDC office expanded through the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) in 2003.

CDC works with the Government of Tanzania to:

• Support HIV testing, prevention, and treatment services.
• Strengthen tuberculosis prevention efforts for people living with HIV.
• Enhance laboratory, surveillance, and workforce capacity to respond to disease outbreaks through the Global Health Security.
• Prevent and control malaria as a co-implementer of the U.S. President's Malaria Initiative (PMI).
• Respond to disease outbreaks, such as COVID-19, to mitigate health service disruption.

Global health security

Strategic focus

Tanzania has 54 official borders with eight different countries, including the African Great Lakes region. This geographic scope makes the country vulnerable to disease outbreaks and epidemic spread. CDC and partners are well-placed to leverage past successful initiatives and rapidly respond to emerging and existing public health challenges.

Health security systems

CDC supports Tanzania to strengthen International Health Regulations core capacities to:

• Comprehensively prevent to public health threats.
• Rapidly detect to public health threats.
• Effectively respond to public health threats.
• Successfully apply "All Hazards" contingency plans.

Disease surveillance

CDC also supports strengthened disease surveillance activities including:

• Expansion of the electronic community and facility-based surveillance for detection of early warning alerts.
• Training the global public health workforce, including district-level epidemiologists.
• Strengthened border health capabilities.
• Enhanced laboratory testing for pathogens like Ebola and COVID-19.
• Establishment of national and subnational Emergency Operations Centers (EOCs).

Workforce development

CDC established the Field Epidemiology & Laboratory Training Program (FELTP) in 2008. In 2016, Tanzania's FELTP expanded to include three training programs for frontline, intermediate, and advanced residents.

CDC also launched Project ECHO in 2016. The project uses teleconferencing to facilitate case-based learning and knowledge sharing between participants and subject matter experts. ECHO virtual sessions cover various topics, including HIV and TB clinical care and COVID-19 case management. CDC manages the Project ECHO sites with support from implementing partners.

Emergency management systems

CDC in collaborated with the World Health Organization (WHO) to help Tanzania establish and activate a fully functional Public Health Emergency Operation Center (PHEOC) in 2015. The PHEOC has coordinated responses to a broad range of public health emergencies. These responses have included COVID-19, cholera, anthrax, dengue, aflatoxin and various disasters.

Key achievements

• CDC helped establish 1 national and 5 regional EOCs to coordinate and respond to national public health emergencies.
• Since 2008, more than 924 residents have graduated from the advanced, intermediate, and frontline FELTP.
• More than 11 million people were fully vaccinated for COVID-19 in eleven CDC-supported regions and Zanzibar.
• More than 1,680 community health care workers and 750 health care workers trained on event-based disease surveillance.
• More than 271 health facilities and 8 large hospitals across 31 regions in Tanzania and Zanzibar use Project ECHO for knowledge sharing.

HIV and TB

Strategic focus

As a key implementer of the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), CDC works with the Tanzanian government to build a sustainable, high-impact national HIV response to accelerate progress towards ending the HIV epidemic. CDC collaborates with the Ministry of Health in Tanzania and Zanzibar to support HIV testing, prevention, and treatment services and to strengthen health systems. Current programmatic priorities include:

• Scaling up targeted testing strategies, such as index testing and social network testing.
• Limiting treatment interruption among people enrolled in antiretroviral therapy.
• Providing optimal treatment regimens for children and adults to achieve viral suppression.
• Reaching all people living with HIV with TB preventive treatment.
• Eliminating mother-to-child transmission of HIV.
• Strengthening health information systems.
• Using data to inform decision-making.
• Ensuring health worker training, retention, and participation in outbreak response.
• Strengthening laboratory detection capacities for HIV and TB.

Key achievements

• Over 70,000 people with HIV were identified through index testing—the process of offering HIV tests to contacts of people living with HIV.
• Over 870,000 adults and children received ART through CDC support.
• 61 laboratories received international-standards accreditation.
• More than 600 personnel have been trained in laboratory quality management systems.

Malaria

Strategic focus

CDC and partners in Tanzania have engaged in malaria projects since the late 1990s. As a co-implementer of the U.S. President's Malaria Initiative, CDC has assigned a resident advisor to support the implementation of malaria prevention and control interventions:

• Distributing long-lasting insecticide-treated nets and artemisinin-based combination therapy.
• Preventing malaria in pregnancy.
• Improving diagnostics and case management.
• Strengthening laboratory services.

Key achievements

CDC contributed to malaria control efforts in Tanzania, with malaria incidence decreasing by 65% from 2000 to 2022.

• Decreased child death rates by 40% over the past 10 years.
• Distributed more than 27 million mosquito nets.
• Delivered more than 3 million doses of preventive treatment in pregnancy.
• Distributed nearly 29 million rapid diagnostics tests and more than 52 million fast-acting malaria medicines.

Success stories

CDC Evaluates and Shares Lessons Learned from HPV Vaccine Introduction in Three Countries

CDC evaluates HPV vaccine introduction in Zimbabwe, Senegal, and Tanzania, sharing lessons learned.

May 15, 2024

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