CDC's Work in Zambia

CDC has worked in Zambia since 2000, alongside the Government of Zambia, the Ministry of Health, the Zambia National Public Health Institute and other partners. Its work aims to prevent, detect and respond to infectious disease outbreaks and to support control of HIV and tuberculosis (TB) — protecting health both in Zambia and in the United States.

TB Deaths Decline Almost 80% Among People Living with HIV in Zambia. CDC.

Key accomplishments

• SmartCare, a national electronic medical record system for patient and program monitoring, rolled out to more than 1,600 clinics.
• National and subnational laboratories supported to reach international accreditation standards, and government capacity built to detect outbreaks through the National Multi-Pathogen Detection Program.
• 501 fellows trained through the Field Epidemiology Training Program (FETP), many now in key public health posts nationally and locally.
• Expansion of the Extension for Community Health Outcomes (ECHO) program, through which Zambian experts consult with more than 500 sites in all 10 provinces.
• A government-to-government (G2G) model in which subnational authorities receive CDC funding directly to run health programs — an approach CDC says improves outcomes and saves money.

CDC supports Zambia's National Public Health Institute to strengthen surveillance and preparedness for health threats. Photo: Santos Sanchez/CDC.

Global health security

Public health systems. CDC supports:

• better epidemiology, disease and death surveillance, program monitoring and health information systems, including SmartCare, DHIS2 and Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response;
• the National Public Health Institute's ability to prepare for, detect and respond to threats such as viral hemorrhagic fevers like Ebola, which occur in neighboring countries;
• evaluations to measure impact and adjust quickly to changing HIV, TB and emerging disease epidemics;
• government leadership of responses, and provincial and district health services.

Workforce. FETP trains disease detectives in surveillance, outbreak containment, and collecting, analyzing and acting on data. CDC also supports expanded academic and clinical training at the University of Zambia and the University Teaching Hospital, and training and mentorship through Project ECHO.

Emergency response. In outbreaks from COVID-19 to cholera, CDC Zambia has supported vaccination campaigns, surveillance strategy, contact tracing and laboratory testing.

HIV and TB

For 25 years CDC has helped the Ministry of Health scale up HIV treatment and prevention. As a key implementer of the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), CDC supports HIV testing, treatment and prevention and works with partners on TB diagnosis, treatment and prevention. Its PEPFAR work in Zambia runs mainly through the G2G model, which builds government ownership and capacity and offers a path to self-reliance. One CDC success story reports that TB deaths among people living with HIV in Zambia fell by almost 80%.

Influenza

CDC Zambia has long worked with the University Teaching Hospital and the Ministry of Health on influenza surveillance. The findings help track trends and emerging threats from influenza and other diseases with pandemic potential in Zambia and southern Africa, and specimens contribute to a global effort that uses Southern Hemisphere strain data to design the seasonal flu vaccine for the United States.

Sources

• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: "CDC in Zambia."
• The film is the agency's own low-resolution copy, recovered from the Internet Archive's record of cdc.gov.