A Strategy for Strengthening National Epidemiological Surveillance Systems in Africa

Animal diseases continue to be a serious impediment to economic progress in most countries in Africa and the situation is likely to worsen if timely appropriate steps are not taken. As is the case with other regions of the world, it is becoming increasingly evident that the public veterinary sector in Africa will not be capable of fulfilling this function alone and that private veterinarians, veterinary para-professionals (technicians) and farmers will be called upon to play an important role. All authors agree that epidemiology is a procedure or activity associated with disease control. Surveillance is defined as " The systematic ongoing collection, collation, and analysis of data, and the timely dissemination of information to those who need to know so that action can be taken ". Physical components of epidemio-surveillance are enlisted as: official Veterinary Services, the diagnostic laboratory, the herder and herds and the computer database. There are many factors impeding running a proper epidemio-surveillance. These include financial, logistical and technical constraints. The evidence collected and the analyses used to reach any conclusion should be reliable enough for the results to be acceptable to both the managers of the monitoring and surveillance systems and the assessors.