At a glance
CDC Angola, established in 2002, collaborates with the Ministry of Health (MOH) and partners to address key public health issues. CDC's achievements include supporting COVID-19 response, enhancing HIV care and treatment, and implementing malaria control measures, such as distributing mosquito nets and conducting surveillance.
Overview
CDC established an office in Angola in 2002. CDC Angola provides critical support to the MOH and partner organizations to address the following public health issues:
- Workforce development
- HIV
- Malaria
- Emerging public health threats
Global health security
Strategic focus
CDC Angola supports the MOH with outbreak investigations and disease surveillance. CDC also supports laboratory system strengthening and diagnostics for diseases such as COVID-19, HIV, polio, and malaria. CDC works closely with the National AIDS Program and the MOH to support the HIV response and public health workforce development.
CDC's global health security work also focuses on strengthening the country's public health systems across the following core areas:
Laboratory systems strengthening
CDC assists the Angolan National AIDS Institute (INLS) to enhance the integrated laboratory network, which is a core component of the overall healthcare system. This support includes:
- National assessment of the tiered public health laboratory system
- Development of a national strategic plan to guide provision of laboratory services
- Implementation of laboratory quality systems through the Strengthening Laboratory Management Towards Accreditation program
- Implementation of a laboratory information system for viral load results management
Workforce development
CDC helps implement the Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP). FETP residents support the MOH by:
- Conducting epidemiologic surveys and investigations.
- Evaluating surveillance systems.
- Implementing disease control and prevention measures.
- Reporting findings to decision- and policy-makers.
- Assessing HIV data collection, reporting systems and treatment adherence rates.
- Supporting partner notification services in model clinics supported by the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).
Key achievements
Previous collaborative efforts to strengthen laboratory and disease surveillance systems laid a foundation for CDC's COVID-19 response:
- Trained over 100 technicians in 5 provinces.
- Provided personal protective equipment (PPE) and laboratory equipment for molecular surveillance.
- Supported training for over 1,000 healthcare workers in 83 health facilities on COVID-19 testing and the use of PPE.
HIV
Strategic focus
CDC collaborates with the MOH to address HIV through PEPFAR. In close partnership with the MOH, CDC strengthens laboratory and workforce capacity, laboratory information systems, and disease surveillance by:
- Training healthcare professionals in HIV care and treatment services.
- Strengthening the quality, coverage, and monitoring of HIV service delivery.
- Supporting scale-up and enhancement of tools for viral load monitoring for people living with HIV.
Key achievements
- Implementation of HIV programming in 22 health facilities across the country.
- Provision of technical assistance to INLS and facilitation of key HIV policy changes.
- Contribution to the development of a national register of patients with HIV infection at each PEPFAR-supported health facility.
- This helped reduce duplicate data and improve linkage to treatment and retention of patients.
- This helped reduce duplicate data and improve linkage to treatment and retention of patients.
Malaria
Strategic focus
Under the U.S. President's Malaria Initiative, CDC assigned a resident advisor to support implementation of malaria control measures in six provinces. CDC partners with the National Malaria Control Program to:
- Provide long-lasting insecticide treated mosquito nets.
- Conduct mosquito surveillance.
- Prevent malaria in pregnancy.
- Train healthcare workers in diagnostics, prevention, and case management.
- Direct treatments, tests, and training based on malaria incidence across facility, municipality, and provincial levels.
Key achievements
- CDC has trained over 120 community health workers in malaria case management and facilitation.
- Distributed over 945,000 antimalarial treatment courses and performed over 1.6 million malaria blood tests.
- Angola completed a Therapeutic Efficacy Survey to look for possible markers of anti-malarial resistance in 3 provinces.