African Network vor Coronavirus Surveillance

discovery - Compared to other regions of the world, acute respiratory infections in sub-Saharan Africa cause a disproportionately high burden of illness and death. The aim of this project is to combat transnational acute respiratory diseases, which can be attributed to the current outbreak of COVID-19, in sub-Saharan Africa. For this purpose, the routine molecular biological detection of SARS-CoV-2 is established in central laboratories in Burkina Faso, the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and South Africa. The rapid introduction of corresponding tests is made possible by a close connection to the BMBF-funded African Network for the Detection, Epidemiology and Management of common Infectious Agents (ANDEMIA), which has been running successfully since 2017 and which uses hospital-based monitoring and recording to detect acute respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases and tries to combat acute fever of unknown origin and the spread of multi-resistant pathogens in sub-Saharan Africa. With this project, the detection of SARS-CoV-2 in patients with acute respiratory symptoms is now linked to the acquisition by ANDEMIA. This lays the foundation for the further outbreak and risk areas in Africa to be recorded.