Dear Centre Leaders,
Greetings from the INDEPTH Secretariat. We hope you have had a good week.

We have the following items for your attention:

1. African CDC to Open in 2015

Secretary of State John Kerry signed an agreement Monday to help establish a Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Africa. The goal for the agency is to support the continent with active disease surveillance and response.

The memorandum of cooperation, signed by Kerry and African Union Commission (AUC) Chairperson Nkosanzana Dlamini Zuma, makes formal the relationship between the United States CDC and AUC, and mandates the establishment of an African CDC. The new institute, set to launch in 2015, will work to prevent and respond to future outbreaks in the continent, like the Ebola epidemic.

“The West African Ebola epidemic reaffirmed the need for a public health institute to support African ministries of health and other health agencies in their efforts to prevent, detect, and respond to any disease outbreak,” said CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden, in a statement. “This memorandum solidifies the commitment by the United States to advance public health across Africa and global health security.”

The formation of an African CDC has been under development for a few years, and the physical launch of the health institute will happen later this year. An African Surveillance and Response Unit will be established with an emergency operations center. Five regional centers will also be identified with a coordinating center in Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa. Like the U.S. CDC, there will be epidemiologists at the various locations who will perform disease surveillance, investigation and tracking of infection trends. The new unit will also provide response expertise during large outbreaks.

“With the African CDC in place, these volunteers and others can be organised to form a deployable force ready to serve Member States during future health emergency responses on the continent,” said a CDC statement.

2. Gauging INDEPTH Research Interest

The purpose of this survey is to gauge the interest of INDEPTH member centres in a list of new research ideas proposed by a potential new partner with the INDEPTH Network.

Research institutions globally are increasingly recognising that INDEPTH maintains an unparalleled longitudinal demographic surveillance of populations in Asia, Africa and Oceania. These institutions contact the Network's Secretariat to express their interests in collaborating with scientists at INDEPTH member centres to work together and produce transformative insights that leverage the perspectives of all collaborators.

For any inquiries, please contact: samuelina.arthur@indepth-network.org
Survey Link : https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FMSQD2G

3. Nahuche HDSS leader promoted to Professor

The governing council of the Usmanu Danfodiyo University, in Sokoto, Nigeria, has confirmed the promotion to the rank of Professor of Public Health to the Director of the Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) - Nahuche Research Centre, Oche M. Oche, effective 1st October, 2013. Congratulations, Prof Oche!

4. Workshop on research data sharing held in SA

An international workshop recently held in Stellenbosch, South Africa explored the opportunities and challenges for enabling greater access to (and use of) data generated by public health and epidemiological research in Africa. David Carr, Policy Adviser at the Wellcome Trust, describes some of the key themes that emerged from the productive and lively discussion.

During the workshop speakers from several major collaborative initiatives and networks – including the INDEPTH Network and ALPHA networks, H3 Africa and WWARN (the Worldwide Antimalarial Research Network) – also described how effective platforms for data sharing had been established which were benefiting researchers across Africa and beyond.
Read more http://blog.wellcome.ac.uk/2015/04/08/sharing-research-data-to-improve-public-health/

5. INDEPTHStats Call to Member Centres

As you are all aware, we are again gearing up for the next INDEPTHStats update which as agreed is scheduled (annually) for 1st July. Although we have in place a participatory process for data consistency and plausibility checks (http://www.indepth-ishare.org/indepthstats/), as always we are readily available to assist you with data issues and plausibility reviews.

Every member HDSS of INDEPTH is encouraged to submit data to INDEPTHStats.

Currently we have two groups:

• Those already on INDEPTHStats are expected to provide the relevant 2012 indicators for review and eventual update on July 2015.

6. INDEPTH Scientific Conference registration opens

Registration for this year’s INDEPTH Scientific Conference (ISC 2015) is now open. The conference will be held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from November 11 – 14, 2015. It is on the theme “Health and Demographic Research to Inform the Post-2015 Development Agenda”.

All are encouraged to register here:

Thank you.

Have a restful weekend!

Becky Kwei