Conference Abstract | Volume 8, Abstract ELIC2025200 (Oral 141) | Published: 18 Aug 2025
Marie-Lumière Ntyam Mbo1, Basile Kamgang2, Chanceline Bilounga3, Poe Poe Aung4, Linda Esso5
1Department For Control of Disease, Epidemics and Pandemics, Yaoundé, Cameroon, 2Centre For Research in Infectious Disease, Yaoundé, Cameroon, 3University of Douala, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Science, Douala, Cameroon, 4Malaria Consortium, Bangkok, Thailand
&Corresponding author: Marie-Lumière Ntyam Mbo, Department for Control of Disease, Epidemics and Pandemics, Yaoundé, Cameroon. Email: mariecybelentyam@gmail.com
Received: 20 May 2025, Accepted: 09 Jul 2025, Published: 18 Aug 2025
Domain: Infectious Disease Epidemiology
Keywords: Cameroon, arbovirus, stakeholders, interview, preparedness, response
©Marie-Lumière Ntyam Mbo et al. Journal of Interventional Epidemiology and Public Health (ISSN: 2664-2824). This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Cite this article: Marie-Lumière Ntyam Mbo et al. Self-assessment of system readiness and capabilities response to arbovirus threats in Cameroon: Stakeholders’ interview. Journal of Interventional Epidemiology and Public Health. 2025;8(ConfProc5):00141. https://doi.org/10.37432/jieph-confpro5-00141
WHO has indicated its concern about arboviruses by implementing the Global Arbovirus Initiative, to provide higher-level awareness, guidance and support for nations globally in 2022. A recent survey published by WHO in 2022 reported that all 47 countries in the WHO AFRO region have a “huge gap” in capacity and readiness to confront the rising threat of arboviruses. Working on behalf of the “Resilience Against Future Threats through Vector Control” partners, Malaria Consortium developed an evaluation instrument of country’s self-assessed questionnaire on arbovirus preparedness. This survey is part of a project in partnership with Centre for Research in Infectious Disease. The aim was to grasp the diverse perspectives and insights of stakeholders on arbovirus threats and preparedness.
This interview has further strengthened our understanding of the country’s level of preparedness in the face of threats related to arboviruses. As a result, this interview allowed us to identify some gaps in the preparation and to understand that the main difficulty is the lack of financial, material, and logistical resources. From this interview, we were also able to identify some challenges, particularly regarding epidemiological surveillance, management, risks communication and community engagement. As for the technical and financial contribution, there is still no budget allocated for surveillance, preparation, and response activities related to arboviruses.
When we know that several countries in Africa in general, and those bordering Cameroon in particular, regularly face dengue epidemics, it is important that the country’s level of preparedness is at its highest. However, the experience of managing yellow fever epidemics can serve as a framework upon which to build in order to improve the country’s preparedness and response capabilities to arboviruses.
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