The East African Community (EAC) is the regional intergovernmental organization of the Republics of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, the United Republic of Tanzania, and the Republic of Uganda, with its headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania. The East African Community (www.eac.int) is implementing the “One Health” initiative through the “East African Integrated Disease Surveillance Network (EAIDSNet)” which is a regional collaborative effort of the national Ministries responsible for human and animal health as well as the national health research and academic institutions of the five (5) EAC Partner States.
Objective
The main objectives of the Network are to promote cross-border integrated diseases prevention and control through “One Health” approaches and joint action focusing on innovative human, animal and ecosystem health interventions, to among others:1) enhance and strengthen cross-country and cross-institutional collaboration through regional coordination of activities and local community participation, 2) promote exchange and dissemination of appropriate information on Integrated Disease Surveillance (IDS) and other disease control activities, 3) harmonize integrated disease surveillance systems in the region, 4) strengthen capacity for implementing integrated disease surveillance and control activities, and 5) ensure continuous exchange of expertise and best practices for integrated disease surveillance and control of pandemics and epidemics of communicable and vector-borne diseases in the East African Community Partner States (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda and Tanzania).