Tanzania, Burundi collaborate to enhance disease preparedness at the border meeting.

TANZANIA—The Tanzanian Ministry of Health, with support from the East, Central, and Southern Africa Health Community (ECSA-HC), the World Health Organization (WHO), Africa CDC, the International Organization for Migration, and various other partners, has organised a vital cross-border meeting with Burundi.

This initiative comes at a time when the region is grappling with multiple health crises, including the Marburg Virus Disease (MVD) in Tanzania, Ebola in Uganda, and Mpox in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Burundi.

Kagera, a pivotal border region in Tanzania, serves as a critical gateway connecting several countries, including Uganda, Burundi, and Rwanda.

Its strategic location makes it highly susceptible to emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases.

The dynamic cross-border movement in this area poses significant challenges, as people frequently travel for trade, work, education, religious activities, and traditional healing.

This highlights the need for coordinated preparedness and response efforts to mitigate the risk of disease outbreaks.

The cross-border meeting, held from February 10–12, focused on revitalizing Public Health Emergency Contingency Plans (PHECPs), enhancing disease surveillance, and strengthening joint preparedness and response efforts among border health authorities.

 Josephine Vito Kaing, Environmental Health Officer and Epidemiologist at the Ministry of Health, Tanzania, emphasized that the region’s high risk of disease outbreaks necessitates coordinated action.

“Daily cross-border movement for various activities makes it essential to have a unified approach to health security,” she noted.

The Joint Cross-Border Committee plays a vital role in coordinating health security efforts between Tanzania and Burundi, in line with the WHO International Health Regulations (IHR 2005).

This committee comprises surveillance teams, border management authorities, and health officials from both countries, ensuring a harmonized approach to outbreak preparedness and response.

Dr. Remedius Kakulu, Public Health Specialist and IHR Focal Point for Tanzania, highlighted that diseases do not respect borders and can quickly escalate into regional or global crises.

 “A health issue in Tanzania is a concern for Burundi and beyond, which is why cross-border committees must be formalized and operational to ensure coordinated prevention and response,” he explained.

Despite the progress made, disparities in preparedness, resources, and response capacity among countries pose significant challenges for coordination.

Dr. Mushi Benedict, Senior Knowledge Management and Public Health Specialist at ECSA-HC, pointed out that unsynchronized funding is a major hurdle in implementing cross-border health security.

 Some border areas receive financial support, while others lack necessary resources, leading to inconsistencies in intervention efforts.

Additionally, porous borders and inadequate human resources, including training and equipment for border health officers, complicate disease detection and containment.

To address these challenges, the cross-border committee is crucial in synchronizing disease surveillance efforts, improving information-sharing mechanisms, and harmonizing response measures.

Dr. Nyandwi Stanislas, Burundi’s Technical Director of Preparedness, Response, and Resilience of Health Emergencies, echoed these concerns and called for greater investment in joint outbreak response planning and harmonized disease surveillance measures.

The meeting resulted in several key agreements, including updating PHECPs, conducting tabletop simulations to evaluate emergency response strategies, and enhancing joint disease surveillance through improved coordination.

Participants emphasized the need to integrate community-based surveillance mechanisms by engaging local leaders, traditional healers, and religious figures in health communication efforts.

Training on the use of RING (Recognize, Isolate, Notify, Give) support cards for early identification of ill travelers was also highlighted as a critical area of focus.

Africa CDC reaffirmed its commitment to supporting cross-border public health initiatives. Neema Kamara, Africa CDC’s Field Coordinator for the MVD response in Kagera, stressed that preparedness must be prioritized alongside response efforts.

“Strengthening border public health information-sharing, synchronizing surveillance systems, and empowering local staff are key steps to preventing future crises,” she noted.

The meeting concluded with a strong call to action for international partners, regional entities, and governments to formalize and sustainably fund cross-border health committees.

Key recommendations included integrating harmonized standard operating procedures across all border posts, expanding risk communication strategies in multiple languages, and prioritizing joint outbreak preparedness programs.

The outcomes of this meeting underscore a critical message: borders should not be barriers to health security.

Countries must collaborate to strengthen regional health systems, synchronize disease response efforts, and ensure that no community is left vulnerable to emerging infectious diseases.

As Dr. Stanislas from Burundi emphasized, “When we collaborate, we learn from each other’s successes and challenges. This is the only way we can build a stronger, more resilient health security framework for the region.”

With emerging health threats evolving rapidly, the need for sustained investment in cross-border public health security has never been greater.

Africa must take bold steps to prioritize preparedness, harmonize surveillance strategies, and build resilient health systems—because no country is truly safe until its neighbors are safe as well.

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