Project Area: Prevent Epidemics

7-1-7 target in Lancet Global Health

Resolve to Save Lives' 7-1-7 Approach

RTSL’s Prevent Epidemics Team publishes evidence from early pilots on the 7-1-7 target for early detection of and response to disease threats.

The 7-1-7 Alliance is a new country-led, global partnership to improve health security

Dr. Issa Makumbi, Director of Uganda’s Public Health Emergency Operations Centre, will serve as inaugural Chair of the Technical Steering Group for The 7-1-7 Alliance: a country-led partnership for technical assistance, financial support and a growing, global community of practice to help all countries achieve the 7-1-7 target for outbreak detection and control.

Sharing lessons from dedicated preparedness teams

The Prevent Epidemics team held the first-ever gathering of its dedicated preparedness teams, also known as acceleration teams, in Nairobi, Kenya. Teams from DRC, Ethiopia, Liberia and Uganda gathered with RTSL staff from the global and Nigeria offices to share their successes and challenges in making epidemic preparedness a priority in their countries.

Webinar: How the 7-1-7 Approach Improves Epidemic Preparedness and Response

Featuring presentations from Dr. Issa Makumbi of Uganda’s National Public Health Institute and Dr. Ambrose Talisuna of the World Health Organization, our latest webinar gave attendees insight into 7-1-7’s utility as a performance improvement tool in Uganda and the vision of the WHO Regional Office for Africa for leveraging the metric. The event featured opening […]

Health security bulletin helps coordinate epidemic preparedness in Ethiopia

Supported by Resolve to Save Lives, Ethiopia’s dedicated preparedness team created a quarterly bulletin covering national health security news. The bulletin, which delves into topics such as One Health and progress made on the country’s National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS), improves information-sharing between the different departments involved in epidemic preparedness. It also improves […]

An interactive guide to help people navigate COVID-19 risk

In 2021, we partnered with the New York Times and Johns Hopkins University to create an interactive guide to help U.S. residents navigate COVID-19 risk by county. The guide, which was active from January 2021 to March 2022, used principles of alert level systems, which are a valuable means for public health officials to communicate […]

Celebrating Epidemics that Didn’t Happen

Our latest “Epidemics that Didn’t Happen” report celebrates successful outbreak responses from around the world that demonstrate the returns of investing in preparedness and response systems. These examples—from Brazil, Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea, Indonesia, India and Tanzania—are a testament to the power of preparedness and a roadmap for future success in preventing […]

Campaigns build vaccine confidence in Rwanda and Uganda

Resolve to Save Lives partnered with the Partnership for Healthy Cities to support cities in low- and middle-income countries in securing and administering COVID-19 vaccines. The campaigns, in Kampala, Uganda and Kigali, Rwanda, featured compelling video testimonials from an array of city residents about their positive experiences with inoculation. In Kigali, the campaign helped bring […]

Health care worker training at scale: Reflections from COVID-19

At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Resolve to Save Lives partnered with organizations across 22 countries in Africa to support health care worker training and mentorship in primary health care facilities. After finding that existing resources were not optimized for use by health care workers, the team developed a self-paced, online course about infection […]

Highlighting the linkages between health care worker safety and epidemic preparedness

A new page on PreventEpidemics.org highlights the linkages between health care worker safety and epidemic preparedness and describes our team’s ongoing work to improve infection prevention and control measures at the primary health care level across Africa. Between April 2020 and January 2021, we worked with a variety of stakeholders and organizations to help train […]

Improving IPC in Zimbabwe

As part of a larger project to increase health care worker safety, the Prevent Epidemics team has worked to improve infection prevention and control measures and ensure maintenance of essential health services at the primary health care level at facilities across nine countries. In Zimbabwe, RTSL partnered with the Infection Control Association of Zimbabwe from […]

Sharing 7-1-7: A global metric for early detection & response

In recent weeks, the Prevent Epidemics team has made the case for the 7-1-7 metric for early detection of and response to disease threats to stakeholders around the world. In Liberia, our team presented data on six outbreaks as part of a workshop on the metric for public health officials working at both the national […]

“Voices” of Long COVID Stress the Urgency of COVID-19 Vaccination

Last fall, we launched Voices of Long Covid to raise awareness about the risks of long-term complications, even from mild or asymptomatic COVID-19 cases. The campaign, which featured real-life stories from three young people, aired on national TV, including during Saturday Night Live. Learn more about how we worked with state and local health departments […]

Strengthening Epidemic Preparedness at the Country Level

In partnership with public health institutions in eight African countries, Resolve to Save Lives released an issue brief outlining five proven approaches for national governments to significantly improve epidemic detection and containment in their communities. The model is based on joint efforts among African nations to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 and other infectious diseases […]

Getting Shots Into Arms: A Vaccine Equity Strategy in North Carolina

Our U.S. COVID-19 Response team embedded staff members with the Wake County, North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (WCHHS) to protect and improve community health during the pandemic. Beginning in February 2021, WCHHS began implementing a vaccine equity strategy to reach underserved communities. One of the prioritized census tracts increased vaccinations by 29.7% […]

Providing fast, flexible funds to shorten time to respond to disease threats in Nigeria

Since 2017, Resolve to Save Lives has helped the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) and the African Field Epidemiology Network establish and maintain the Revolving Outbreak Investigation Fund (ROIF). This provides for the rapid release of funds for the NCDC to investigate, verify and control infectious outbreaks. With this support, Nigeria has reduced its […]

Former CDC directors: Coordinating our nation’s health data will save lives

As the SARS-CoV-2 surge recedes, we need to apply the lessons we’ve learned during this pandemic to improve our response to the next health emergency. One major obstacle has been the lack of health data needed to track the pandemic and assess its impact across the complex U.S. healthcare and public health ecosystem. This lack of timely, standardized data hampered our ability to respond rapidly and effectively to the pandemic.

U.S. COVID Response Team — Farewell Video

Since March 2020, our U.S. COVID-19 Response team worked with public health officials, health department staff and key stakeholder organizations to promote equitable and efficient vaccine rollout and advance prevention, testing, contact tracing, quarantine and isolation strategies to help end the pandemic. As the team winds down, we put together a video highlighting its work […]