WEST AFRICA: Disease control hub launched
OUAGADOUGOU, 24 July 2009 (IRIN): Health ministers in West Africa have committed to a 10-year multimillion dollar plan to create a regional centre for disease control (CDC) with a high-level reference – advanced – lab to be based in Burkina Fasos capital, Ouagadougou.
Despite the coincidence of the launch with the spread of the H1N1/09 virus, Evariste Mutabaruka, acting director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Multi Disease Surveillance Centre, also based in Ouagadougou, told IRIN a regional CDC has been in the planning for years.
– Occurrence of H1N1 has increased pandemic awareness and highlighted the importance of predicting emerging diseases and testing for them, but talk of the need for such a centre dates back two decades with active planning by the West Africa WHO office in Brazzaville starting in 2006, Mutabaruka told IRIN.
Burkina Fasos existing disease surveillance centre will serve as the regions interim CDC until funding is raised to construct the new one.
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