U.S. Government engagement in support of global disease surveillance

Rebecca L Katz,Ray R Arthur,Cyril G Gay,Daniel L Lowe,Gary Resnick,Kevin L Russell,Leana M López,Dennis Carroll,Leonard W Chapman,Joseph F Annelli,Kenneth Cole

doi:10.1186/1471-2458-10-s1-s13

Abstract

Global cooperation is essential for coordinated planning and response to public health emergencies, as well as for building sufficient capacity around the world to detect, assess and respond to health events. The United States is committed to, and actively engaged in, supporting disease surveillance capacity building around the world. We recognize that there are many agencies involved in this effort, which can become confusing to partner countries and other public health entities. This paper aims to describe the agencies and offices working directly on global disease surveillance capacity building in order to clarify the United States Government interagency efforts in this space.

Highlights

The United States Government is committed to supporting the establishment and sustainability of comprehensive global disease surveillance
Using a risk-based approach, the Emerging Pandemic Threats (EPT) program builds on U.S Agency for International Development (USAID)’s experience in disease surveillance, training, and outbreak response to focus on geographic areas where these threats are most likely to emerge
These efforts target a limited number of geographic areas, known as “hot spots,” where new disease threats have emerged in the past

Summary

Introduction

The United States Government is committed to supporting the establishment and sustainability of comprehensive global disease surveillance. Many agencies across the U.S Government, working in a coordinated fashion in every region of the world, are engaged in this essential mission This commitment is based on the recognition that a weakness in the surveillance system in one part of the world is a weakness for the entire globe, and that every nation needs the infrastructure to prepare for, respond to, and recover from health emergencies. The EPT program draws on expertise from across the animaland human-health sectors to build regional, national, and local capacities for early disease detection, laboratorybased disease diagnosis, rapid disease response and containment, and risk reduction. These efforts target a limited number of geographic areas, known as “hot spots,” where new disease threats have emerged in the past. The EPT program focuses on “hot spots” in the Congo Basin of East and Central Africa, the Mekong region and other “hot spots” in Southeast Asia, the Amazon region of South America, and the Gangetic Plain of South Asia

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