EAC conducts rapid response simulation exercises to prepare for disease outbreaks

TANZANIA—The East African Community (EAC) has successfully tested the activation of its recently established regional rapidly deployable expert pool during a table-top simulation exercise (TTX) organized by the bloc’s Secretariat, partner states and other technical partners in Nairobi, Kenya. 

The expert pool, set up in 2020 based on lessons learned from the 2014/15 Ebola outbreak in West Africa and other infectious disease outbreaks in the EAC, aims to ensure a timely regional response to such disease outbreaks by utilizing regional experts.

The training, which was part of a three-day workshop, was aimed at strengthening capacities and knowledge among the partner states and EAC experts about regional and continental guidelines and mechanisms in place for rapid response, centering on the African Health Volunteers Corps and Strengthening and Utilising Response Groups for Emergencies (AVoHC-SURGE) initiative, implemented across the continent. 

The key objective of the TTX was to identify strengths and areas of improvement for collaboration and coordination between national, regional, and continental levels in an outbreak scenario and to develop a roadmap, including recommendations on how to integrate the EAC rapidly deployable expert pool and the AVoHC-SURGE initiative to allow for joint planning, deployments, and capacity development.

Dr. Eric Nzeyimana, Principal Health Officer at the EAC, stated on behalf of the EAC Deputy Secretary General in charge of Infrastructure, Productive, Social, and Political sectors, Andrea Ariik, that the EAC simulation exercise, using the lessons learned and recommendations, puts the region in a good place and better prepares it for future outbreaks of epidemics and pandemics. 

Dr. Radjabu Bigirimana, AVoHC Lead at the Africa CDC, highlighted the mutual benefits of the close collaboration between the EAC Secretariat and the Africa CDC through the AVoHC-SURGE initiative, mentioning that a collaboration framework is under development to allow them to join forces in outbreak response through joint rostering of experts, capacity building, and deployments inside the EAC and on the continent.

The training and the TTX brought together more than 50 experts from health, environment, and livestock sectors in charge of emergency preparedness and response in the EAC Partner States, as well as the EAC Secretariat, WHO AFRO, Africa CDC, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, and the German Epidemic Preparedness Team (SEEG), who together simulated a response to a cross-border Ebola Virus outbreak in the EAC region.

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