CDC in Namibia: Outbreak Response, Laboratories, Data and HIV and TB

The flag of Namibia. Image from CDC's page.

Overview

CDC opened an office in Namibia in 2002. It works with the Ministry of Health and Social Services and other partners to detect, prevent and respond to public health threats — protecting health in Namibia and, in turn, in the United States.

Key accomplishments

• An electronic data system, dashboards and other tools giving decision-makers the data they need to guide and monitor responses.
• With the Namibia Institute of Pathology and the ministry, molecular testing for tuberculosis (TB) and a new urine test (TB-LAM) that diagnoses TB better in resource-limited clinics.
• Training for more than 220 graduates of the Field Epidemiology and Laboratory Training Program since 2014.
• Electronic reporting of lab results to clinics, speeding patient care and outbreak detection.
• Emergency support — testing, case management, infection control, risk communication and vaccination — for outbreaks of malaria, measles, cholera, monkeypox and COVID-19.

What CDC does

• Health security: strengthens emergency preparedness, supports outbreak response and border health, and helped set up a national Emergency Operations Center and National Institute of Public Health. Decades of partnership underpin responses to HIV, TB, malaria, influenza, polio and COVID-19.
• Workforce: helps the ministry place frontline workers and national experts where they're needed, and plan, recruit and manage the future health workforce.
• Laboratories: with the Namibia Institute of Pathology, improves the quality of all HIV and TB testing nationwide; during COVID-19, helped design testing workflows, train staff and ensure biosafety; and has helped write testing protocols for cholera and monkeypox.
• Health information: supports national systems for TB, COVID-19 cases and vaccinations, and HIV (testing, treatment and preventing mother-to-child transmission), and the national District Health Information System (DHIS2), which gathers data on epidemic-prone diseases so staff from clinics to the ministry can act quickly.

HIV and TB

As a key implementer of the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), CDC supports HIV testing, treatment and prevention in Namibia and works with partners on TB diagnosis, treatment and prevention — strengthening the country's ability to prevent, detect and respond to disease and lowering the risk of it reaching the U.S. More on CDC's HIV and TB work in Namibia.

More: the CDC in Namibia fact sheet, Emerging Infectious Diseases articles on Namibia, the U.S. Embassy in Namibia, and travel health advice.

Sources

Based on "CDC in Namibia," Global Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a work of the United States government in the public domain.