The Ohio State University Global One Health initiative continues to advance healthcare in Ethiopia through IHR/CARES in collaboration with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Briana Lozano, deputy director of the Division of Global Health Protection at the U.S. CDC in Ethiopia, and her team recently visited the Arba-Minch Regional Laboratory and SARI/ILI sites as part of this project.
During the visit, the IHR/CARES project team provided laboratory supplies for the influenza molecular diagnostic laboratory, established through a cooperative agreement with the Arba-Minch Regional Public Health Laboratory. As a result of the IHR/CARES project, the laboratory's inventory and supply chain management have significantly improved.
Lozano shared that this newly established influenza laboratory can detect emerging and re-emerging pathogens beyond just respiratory diseases and underscored the importance of data visualization in enhancing data usage for timely health interventions.
The team also visited a hospital SARI/ILI site established as part of this project to strengthen facility-based surveillance and local data use for emerging health risks.