Infectious and Rare Diseases

Infectious Diseases in Africa

As a region, Africa is characterized by the highly infected area and, overall, the weakest public health infrastructure among all regions in the world. Frequently, vertically oriented disease surveillance programs at the national level and in Africa often result in too much paperwork, too many different instructions, terminologies, administrators, and conflicting priorities and streamlined communications, strengthened public health surveillance, the use of standard case definitions, The major criteria for minimum data requirements, and emphasis on feedback through the integrated forms, as well as research and training opportunities, are among the important tools available to improve the situation. Yet, efforts to establish fully more effective public health information may take a period of years to decades. The main aim of Africa is to identify a group of priority diseases categorized as epidemic- prone diseases, diseases targeted for eradication or elimination, and other diseases of public health importance.