Ethiopian Informer
ADDIS ABABA (EI): The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has launched a new Central Data Repository, aiming to strengthen how public health data is integrated, analyzed, and used in addressing the “growing and increasingly complex” health risks across the continent.
The Africa CDC, in a statement issued Wednesday, said despite recent improvements in outbreak detection and reporting, public health data in Africa remains fragmented and dispersed across multiple systems that are often not interoperable, limiting the ability of countries and regional institutions to rapidly identify emerging risks and translate data into timely and coordinated public health action.
According to the Africa CDC, the newly-launched platform will address this challenge by providing a secure and interoperable platform that integrates surveillance, laboratory, and program data from national and regional systems.
The new platform is expected to enhance Africa CDC’s ability to track health threats, support advanced analysis, and forecasting as well as coordinate responses across borders, including through the One Health approach.
Africa faces the highest burden of public health emergencies globally, mainly driven by recurring infectious disease outbreaks, climate shocks such as floods and droughts, population displacement and prolonged humanitarian crises that continue to strain fragile health systems.
Recent data from the African Union’s specialized healthcare agency showed that between 2022 and 2024, the number of reported public health incidents surged by 40 percent, reaching 213 across the continent.
(Photo Credit – Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention – Africa CDC)
