The on-going responses in Africa are well-coordinated within each country and have the strong backing of Africa Union CDC.

Earlier outbreaks relied on US, EU, or other countries to participate with resources including staff. Now, Africa uses its own scientists, health care resources, and experts at the regional and continent members to rapidly detect, respond, and recover from any outbreak.

These have been a strong part of the US and WHO. Global resources have been invested in developing this expertise, including work from MRIGlobal, making Africa a partner in Global Health and One Health.

The order of operations is to detect the disease in people (or animals for some diseases) as early as possible, using:

• Contact tracing—monitoring who was in contact with the patient, then monitoring the patients for fever and illness.

If things get worse, countries may:

• Ask for assistance—when the resources are not available or limited, as in remote locations or in the case of new diseases, usually through the Africa Union, WHO, and other trusted partners

The response to these requests for assistance may include:

• Deploying Mobile Laboratories for advanced diagnostic and research capabilities
• Deploying Mobile Treatment Centers to bring patient care closer to the point of outbreak
• Building Isolation Hospitals to mitigate the outbreak and prevent further spread