Avian Influenza

Participatory Approaches to Disease Surveillance in Africa (PADSA)

Summary

The Participatory Approaches to Disease Surveillance in Africa (PADSA) project focuses on critical capacity in the fight against the highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) epidemic in Africa. PADSA is funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the project is being implemented by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in partnership with the African Union Interafrican Bureau for Animal Resources (AU-IBAR) and Vétérinaires sans Frontières Belgium (VSF-B), and in collaboration with the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). The project began in October of 2007 and is scheduled to be completed in 2009.

The objective of PADSA is to build capacity for active HPAI surveillance in three regions of Africa that can serve as foundations for integrated regional surveillance systems, using risk-based decision making to target scarce surveillance resources to ensure early disease detection and timely information for disease control.

Project Outputs:

1. Integrated regional disease investigation teams capable of carrying out active field investigations for HPAI and other emerging infectious diseases.
2. National participatory disease surveillance (PDS) capacity that enhances the ability of existing animal health surveillance systems to identify and search for priority diseases.
3. PDS practitioners and trainers manuals for HPAI.
4. Application and evaluation of risk-based approaches to HPAI surveillance that incorporate participatory epidemiological data.

PADSA will be implemented in collaboration with national veterinary services, public health services, and HPAI task forces. Regional disease investigation teams, with members from each participating country, will be trained and supported to investigate potential HPAI and other emerging infectious disease outbreaks.

Regional Programmes:
PADSA will be implemented in 4 to 5 countries in West Africa, 2 to 3 in East Africa, and 2 to 3 in Southern Africa. Lessons learnt from these first three regional programmes will be documented and used to design expansion programmes should the opportunity arise to continue and expand the work of PADSA.

Communication components not yet available; they will be added as soon as they are provided to The Communication Initiative.