Gerald Misinzo and Mark Rweyemamu tells us about the decade of work done by the SACIDS Foundation for One Health to protect Sub-Saharan Africa from deadly infectious diseases, including COVID-19. Faced with the conundrum of a high burden of infectious disease yet a low capacity for its risk management, representatives of academic and research institutions…

Dr Placide Mbala-Kingebeni and Prof Jean-Jacques Muyembe Tamfum, discuss the contribution of pathogen sequencing in the management of infectious disease epidemics in the Democratic Republic of Congo   The COVID-19 pandemic Since the detection of the first case of COVID-19 on March 10, 2020, in the DRC, the cumulative number of cases as of September 4, 2021, is 55,992, including 55,991 confirmed…

Named after a freedom fighter who spoke up for science and tech, a group of African and international research funders under the OR Tambo Africa Research Chairs Initiative announced Prof Gerald Misinzo and his institution Sokoine University of Agriculture as one of the initiative’s first ten individual research chair holders and host institutions.   The…

KEY MESSAGES  Antimicrobials (including antibiotics) are natural or synthetic agents that kill microorganisms or stop their growth Despite usefulness of antimicrobials in the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases in human and animals, the world is now faced with the threats of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) The misuse and abuse of antimicrobials in human, animal and…

Several seasoned academic experts describe the move towards strengthening public health surveillance systems in Africa The traditional surveillance systems in Africa depend mainly on indicator-based surveillance (IBS) (1) component of the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) strategy of the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa Strengthening the event-based surveillance (EBS) (2) component of IDSR is critical for the timely capture of health events for…

The African Union Covid-19 training for community workers was developed jointly by the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), SACIDS Foundation for One Health (SACIDS), the UK Public Health Rapid Support Team (UK-PHRST) and US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US-CDC).     The Partnership to Accelerate Covid-19 Testing Initiative (PACT) was established by…

Here, SACIDS Foundation for One Health discuss the volatile changing epidemics landscape in Africa   Over the last few decades, the emergence of several infectious diseases have pushed health systems with challenge after challenge. In these moments, Africa bears the highest burden of infectious diseases in humans and animals – in the world. The new…

Mecky Isaac Matee, Leader of the SACIDS AMR CoP profiles the excellent antimicrobial resistance (AMR) research taking place at the Southern Africa Centre for Infectious Disease Surveillance (SACIDS)  

Gerald Misinzo and Mark Rweyemamu from SACIDS Foundation for One Health provide a detailed look at one health research by the Africa centres of excellence for infectious diseases of humans and animals. In 2016, the World Bank, in partnership with 8 national governments from 8 countries in Eastern and Southern Africa (excluding South Africa) selected 108 proposals from which 24 were…