At a glance
CDC works with the Senegal Ministry of Health (MOH) and other partners to build effective public health collaboration and partnerships, which strengthen the country's core public health capabilities: data and surveillance, laboratory capacity, workforce and institutions, prevention and response, innovation and research, and policy, communications, and diplomacy.
Overview
CDC established an office in Senegal in 2015. CDC began working in Senegal in 2001, with an initial focus on supporting the HIV sentinel surveillance program. The launch of the U.S. President's Malaria Initiative (PMI) in 2006 and the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) in 2010 expanded CDC’s support.
CDC Senegal works with the Government of Senegal and partners to detect, prevent and control infectious disease outbreaks and build and strengthen the country's core public health capabilities. These include data and surveillance, laboratory capacity, workforce and institutions, prevention and response, innovation and research, and policy, communications, and diplomacy. CDC's work aims to protect the health of our nations and public health around the world.
Additional partners in Senegal include:
- WHO
- Africa Field Epidemiology Network (AFENET)
- Institut de Recherche en Santé de Surveillance Epidémiologique et de Formations
- Association of Public Health Laboratories
- Catholic Relief Services
- Institute Pasteur Dakar
- PATH International
- Centre National Hospitalier d'Enfants Albert Royer
Global health security
CDC Senegal implements activities to support global health security through MOH and partners. CDC provides technical and financial support to MOH in the four core GHSA action packages. These include laboratory systems, surveillance, workforce development and emergency operations.
Disease surveillance
Senegal's Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) system reports on 52 diseases. As many as 16 diseases are reported on a weekly basis. Since 2017, CDC has supported Senegal in expanding IDSR to the community level. CDC has trained over 1,000 community health workers on disease reporting.
CDC supported Senegal with developing its inaugural five-year surveillance strategic plan, in close collaboration with key stakeholders. CDC continues to support MOH in disease case-based surveillance through the national information system (DHIS2). This system is actively being deployed across the country.
Emergency management
CDC, with support from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, helped Senegal establish its Public Health Emergency Operations Center (PHEOC). Since its launch in 2017, Senegal's PHEOC has serviced as the hub for coordinating preparedness and response activities. Activities have included outbreak investigations for dengue, Rift Valley fever, yellow fever, Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever, acute flaccid paralysis and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Public health and medical professionals trained through CDC's Public Health Emergency Management Fellowship have been instrumental in supporting these activities. CDC continues to provide support through trainings, mentorship, and technical collaboration.
Laboratory systems
A network of laboratories has been established across Senegal, spanning national, regional, and district levels. Samples collected are analyzed in these designated laboratories to ensure effective patient management and to inform surveillance system.
CDC helps ensure accurate and timely detection of pathogens. CDC collaborates with MOH to enhance testing capabilities and strengthen laboratory systems, including biosafety and biosecurity. With CDC support, laboratory data management and notification capabilities have been enhanced. CDC helped upgrade and deploy the laboratory information system, LabBook, in regional and district laboratories.
Workforce development
Since 2015, CDC strengthens the capacity of Senegal's workforce to investigate and respond to disease outbreaks through the Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP). FETP trains a workforce of field epidemiologists to identify and contain outbreaks before they become epidemics.
CDC collaborated with AFENET and Senegal's PHEOC to launch the Surveillance Training for Ebola Preparedness (STEP). STEP was a 5-week FETP designed as surge training to strengthen the country’s ability to quickly respond to the outbreak. Since then, MOH has taken over program and has successfully trained 376 frontline FETP trainees and 34 intermediate FETP trainees.
FETP graduates focus on animal health, environmental health, and human health and are from all levels of the health structure in Senegal. Senegal has sent 10 medical and surveillance officers to the West Africa Regional advanced FETP program in Burkina Faso. The country is currently exploring the launch of its own advanced program.
Key achievements
- Senegal's FETP has trained 376 surveillance officers and others. There is at least one FETP frontline graduate in every district.
- An electronic data collection platform (DHIS2) was established at all levels in the country.
- All regional hospital laboratories received mentorship in biosafety/biosecurity to improve biological risk management.
Malaria
Under the U.S. President's Malaria Initiative (PMI), CDC has assigned a resident advisor to the malaria-endemic country of Senegal. The focus is to support the implementation of malaria prevention and control interventions. The advisor supports developing and implementing demographic and health surveys to monitor the burden of disease and impact of interventions. CDC provides technical assistance for:
- Operations research
- Diagnostics
- Case management
- Malaria in pregnancy
- Malaria surveillance
- Program evaluation
- Vector monitoring and control
CDC also assists with research to help Senegal progress from malaria control to elimination, including:
- Longevity of insecticide-treated bed nets
- Malaria case management
- Therapeutic efficacy studies
- Development and assessment of new tools
HIV and tuberculosis (TB)
CDC is a key implementer of the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). CDC works with Senegal to build a sustainable, high-impact national HIV response program to accelerate progress towards the UNAIDS global targets to control the HIV epidemic. CDC works with Senegal's MOH to strengthen the national HIV surveillance system, and to improve data quality for prevention of mother-to-child transmission and for on-site HIV rapid testing.
Vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs)
CDC provides technical and programmatic support to eradicate or control VPDs through immunizations. Currently, Senegal’s Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI) targets 13 diseases:
- TB
- Polio (poliomyelitis)
- Diphtheria
- Pertussis (whooping cough)
- Tetanus
- Measles
- Rubella
- Yellow fever
- Hepatitis B
- Pneumococcal disease
- Meningococcal disease
- Rotavirus
- Human papillomavirus (HPV)
Vaccines are provided free of charge through EPI to children and vulnerable populations. CDC has also supported other EPI activities, including:
- Improving measles-rubella campaigns.
- Evaluating delivery strategies and cost of HPV vaccination.
- Supporting COVID-19 post-vaccine evaluation efforts.