On February 9-21, Dr. Oleg Bilukha, Associate Director of Science, Emergency Response and Recovery Branch, Center for Global Health, United States’ Center for Disease Control (CDC) visited Mauritania. Dr. Bilukha’s visit was to further discussions on Ebola preparedness with a focus on rapid detection and response in case of a possible future case. During his visit, Dr. Bilukha met with local and international partners (Government, UN, key NGOs, donors and Red Cross/Red Crescent agencies) to introduce proposed CDC technical assistance and discuss current situation and ongoing Ebola preparedness activities with the focus on epidemiology and surveillance. Dr. Bilukha met with officials at the Ministry of Health from the central, regional and district levels in order to observe surveillance procedures. He also met with the World Health Organization’s (WHO) resident representative and program officers in order to foster coordination. This visit was an opportunity for Dr Bilukha to talk with the partners about activities that CDC could assist with, namely the implementation of the STEP training and rapid deployment emergencies team after a case the introduction of an event. The Ministry of Health has requested further assistant from the CDC by, firstly, conducting a basic epidemiology and surveillance training for surveillance staff at the district and regional levels in Mauritania and, secondly, assisting with formal evaluation and revision of the national surveillance system for priority notifiable infectious diseases. Dr. Bilukha has taken these requests back with him for review by the CDC.
