Primary health care facilities are the first point of contact when community members fall ill. They are also essential to epidemic preparedness. Despite their critical importance, many facilities lack the capacity to prevent, detect and respond to outbreaks while maintaining essential services. To address these gaps and bolster facility resilience, we launched an Epidemic Ready Primary Health Care (ERPHC) initiative in December 2023. Spanning 654 PHC facilities across four African countries—Ethiopia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Uganda—the pilot focused on fostering connection to local communities; detecting and reporting cases; protecting health care workers; and improving patient treatment. Targeted interventions—from monthly mentorship visits to data quality improvement assessments to integrating Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) to enhanced communication between facilities and public health authorities—proved powerful. After 11 months, facility epidemic readiness scores improved significantly—from 55% to 87%. Additionally, reports of suspected reportable diseases increased from 184 to 290 per month, with 94% reported within 24 hours.
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