CDC in Cameroon
CDC supported the Ministry of Public Health during the COVID-19 pandemic to implement community dispensation of HIV treatment. Photo credit: Youta Jorel Morial/Serennah Pictures & Business
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has a long history of contributing to public health impact that protect lives in Cameroon starting with HIV/AIDS work that began in 1998. By 2008, CDC had established key partnerships with the Government of Cameroon to further collaborations aiming to prevent and control HIV, malaria, vaccine preventable diseases, and other infectious diseases. In 2015, CDC joined a new partnership with the Government of Cameroon to prevent, detect, and respond to health threats through the Global Health Security Agenda.
HIV and Tuberculosis (TB)
CDC partners with diverse stakeholders in Cameroon to implement data-driven strategies to identify people living with HIV (PLHIV), link diagnosed PLHIV to life-saving treatment, and ensure continuity of treatment to suppress HIV. In addition, CDC supports Cameroon’s Ministry of Public Health (MOH) to integrate HIV and TB services, screen for TB among PLHIV and prevent TB transmission in healthcare settings. An integral part of this work involves provision of comprehensive HIV and HIV/TB clinical services while using electronic data systems to inform clinical decisions and monitor patient outcomes in more than 340 health facilities across all ten regions. CDC has helped transform the HIV epidemic response in Cameroon, which has positioned the country to be at the cusp of controlling the HIV epidemic. Learn more about CDC’s Global HIV and TB work in Cameroon
More than 424,000 PLHIV in Cameroon receive antiretroviral treatment, representing approximately 88% of all PLHIV and 99% of all diagnosed PLHIV as of December 2022.
More than 170,000 PLHIV benefited from lifesaving tuberculosis preventive treatment through CDC-funded partners since 2019.
CDC played a pivotal role in establishing Cameroon’s National Public Health Laboratory in 2016.
CDC’s efforts resulted in five accredited laboratories, including the first internationally accredited laboratories in Central Africa, and the first internationally certified blood bank in West and Central Africa.
Global Health Security
CDC partners with the Cameroon MOH to build core public health capacities in disease surveillance, laboratory systems, emergency management, and workforce development. These efforts have strengthened health security in Cameroon, in the West-central African region, and globally. The global health security portfolio includes efforts on:
- COVID-19 response and vaccination
- childhood immunization
- influenza sentinel surveillance
- capacity strengthening for anthrax and brucellosis surveillance and diagnostics
- border health measures
- maternal and perinatal death surveillance and response
- technical assistance for cholera disease outbreaks; and
- emergency risk communication
CDC also continues to work with national partners to increase capacity for monkeypox laboratory diagnostics, viral genome sequencing, and ecological investigations.
CDC supported establishing the Public Health Emergency Operations Center, which has been fully activated more than 20 times in responding to health emergencies since 2016. These emergencies have included responses for cholera, COVID-19, Polio, Mpox, measles, maternal death surveillance, and HIV.
In 2023, Rapid Response Teams were deployed to the border with Equatorial Guinea in less than 24 hours of the declaration of the Marburg virus disease outbreak in Equatorial Guinea.
On the foundation of CDC’s support, Cameroon was among the first Central African countries to have COVID-19 diagnostic capacity in 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
CDC supported the National Public Health Laboratory to train 25 laboratory staff from five regions in the diagnosis of ten targeted priority diseases.
Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP)
FETP has been a flagship program pioneered by CDC in Cameroon in close collaboration with the MOH. The Cameroon FETP (CAFETP), established in 2010, has strengthened the public health workforce by training health officials from across the country and sub-region. CDC supports the two-year advanced FETP, nine-month intermediate FETP, and three-month frontline FETP. With CDC support, CAFETP is also training public health professional from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Central African Republic, and Chad.
More than 1,400 trainees graduated from CAFETP across all three tiers combined and dispersed across all 10 regions of Cameroon.
CDC has participated in and supported over 100 outbreak investigations in Cameroon, including for COVID-19, monkeypox, cholera, measles, polio, and other health threats since 2017.
CDC, through the CAFETP, has conducted active border surveillance during the Marburg Virus Disease Outbreak in Equatorial Guinea, which resulted on over 40 alerts detected.
Malaria
As a co-implementer of the U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative with USAID, CDC has supported malaria prevention and control activities in Cameroon since 2017. This support includes:
- routine distribution of insecticide-treated nets
- improved entomological monitoring and insecticide- and drug-resistance management
- improved case management in health facilities and at the community level
- strengthening programs to prevent malaria in pregnancy; and
- provision of seasonal medication to prevent malaria during peak transmission seasons
CDC’s work through PMI helped triple the percentage of children under five and pregnant women who sleep under insecticide-treated bed nets and contributed to a 35% decrease in child deaths caused by malaria.
Through PMI, CDC assisted in delivering more than 9 million doses of seasonal malaria prevention medication to children under five years of age in 2022.
- Strengthening Cameroon’s Health Systems to Prepare for COVID-19 Response
- CDC supports Cameroon to ensure delivery of quality HIV/TB during COVID-19
- CDC Programs In Cameroon Pivot to COVID-19 Response
- First-Of-Its-Kind Exercise Tests Cameroon’s Ability to Detect, Respond and Stop Cholera ‘Outbreak’
- Putting Cameroon’s Emergency Response Capabilities to the Test
- Field Epidemiology Training Program Supports the International School in Cameroon in Vaccinating Against COVID-19
- Strengthening Cameroon’s Health Systems to Prepare for COVID-19 Response
- CDC supports Cameroon to ensure delivery of quality HIV/TB during COVID-19
- CDC Works with Cameroon and Dominican Republic to Improve Laboratoriese
- Preventing HIV in Cameroon
- Overcoming Challenges to the HIV and TB Epidemics in Cameroon
- Eloa’s Story – YouTube
- Breaking the Cycle of Stigma – YouTube
- 7 U.S. Assignees
- 28 Locally Employed
- Population: > 27.9 million
- Per capita income: $3,990
- Life expectancy: F 62 / M 59 years
- Infant mortality rate: 28/1,000 live births
Sources: Population Reference Bureau 2022, Cameroon
- Publications: Cameroon Articles All Issues | Emerging Infectious Diseases journal
- Podcast: Building on Capacity Established through US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Global Health Programs to Respond to COVID-19, Cameroon
- Cameroon | Travelers’ Health | CDC
- Malaria in Cameroon | PMI
- S. Embassy in Cameroon (usembassy.gov)
