CDC in Tanzania: Outbreak Response, HIV, TB and Malaria

CDC opened an office in Tanzania in 2001. It works with the government of Tanzania and partner organizations to prevent, detect, respond to and control infectious disease outbreaks, work that CDC says both supports public health worldwide and protects the health of Americans.

Key accomplishments

• Protecting newborns: prevention of mother-to-child transmission services prevented 52,838 HIV infections in 2024 among babies born to mothers living with HIV.
• Laboratories and surveillance: surveys, routine surveillance and support to more than 4,500 public health laboratories.
• Field epidemiologists: nearly 1,100 residents trained since 2008 through the frontline, intermediate and advanced Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Programs (FELTP), whose graduates have responded to more than 150 outbreaks and emergencies.
• Emergency operations: a national Public Health Emergency Operations Center (EOC), five regional EOCs, and technical help to 18 more, improving early warning and rapid response across Tanzania and Zanzibar. These were instrumental in stopping the 2025 Marburg virus disease outbreak.
• HIV control: more than 1.5 million people supported on antiretroviral therapy, 98% of them with viral suppression.

Global health security

Tanzania has 54 official borders with eight countries, including in the African Great Lakes region, which makes it vulnerable to cross-border outbreaks. Under what CDC calls its One CDC model, pooling expertise, programs and platforms, CDC helps Tanzania strengthen its core capacities under the International Health Regulations to prevent, detect and respond to public health threats and apply "all hazards" contingency plans.

Surveillance support includes:

• expanding electronic community- and facility-based surveillance to catch early warning alerts
• training public health workers, including district epidemiologists
• strengthening border health
• better laboratory testing for pathogens such as Ebola and COVID-19
• setting up national and subnational EOCs

Training. CDC established Tanzania's FELTP in 2008, and in 2016 it grew into three programs, for frontline, intermediate and advanced residents. Also in 2016 CDC launched Project ECHO, which uses teleconferencing for case-based learning between participants and experts; more than 463 hospitals, health facilities and high-volume dispensaries in 31 regions of Tanzania and Zanzibar use it.

Emergency management. In 2015 CDC and partners helped Tanzania set up and activate a fully functional Public Health Emergency Operations Center. It has coordinated responses to monkeypox, COVID-19, cholera, Marburg, anthrax, dengue and aflatoxin, among others.

HIV and TB

CDC is a key implementer of the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), and through it supports HIV testing, treatment and prevention in Tanzania and works with partners on TB diagnosis, treatment and prevention, strengthening the country's ability to respond to HIV, TB and other infectious diseases. Tanzania is one of five countries in the TB Guidance for Adaptable Patient-Centered Service (TB GAPS) operational research study, which looks for better ways to screen for, diagnose and prevent TB in children and adults.

Malaria

CDC has worked with partners on malaria prevention and control in Tanzania since the late 1990s, giving technical input on:

• distributing long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets and artemisinin-based combination therapy
• preventing malaria in pregnancy
• improving diagnosis and case management
• strengthening laboratory services

Sources

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "CDC in Tanzania." https://www.cdc.gov/global-health/countries/tanzania.html
• CDC in Tanzania fact sheet: https://www.cdc.gov/global-health/media/pdfs/Tanzania_factsheet.pdf; CDC's HIV and TB work in Tanzania: https://www.cdc.gov/global-hiv-tb/php/where-we-work/tanzania.html