Cameroon nveils $160 Million Health Security Program to Strengthen Epidemic Preparedness
Cameroon has launched a nearly $160 million health security program aimed at strengthening the country's capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to future disease outbreaks, marking a major expansion of its epidemic preparedness infrastructure.
Officially launched on July 29, 2026, in Yaoundé, the initiative will support disease surveillance in 42 municipalities, modernize 50 laboratories, and make public health emergency operations centers fully operational across all 10 regions. The program is financed through a combination of international grants, partner funding, and domestic investment. The Pandemic Fund is providing a $23.5 million grant, complemented by more than $112 million in co-financing from development partners and $24 million in national co-investment.
As a result, Cameroon is not receiving a direct $160 million grant. Instead, that figure represents the total resources expected to finance the project. The Pandemic Fund accounts for roughly 15% of the package, with the bulk coming from partners and the Cameroonian government.
Created in 2022 following the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pandemic Fund is a World Bank-hosted multilateral financing mechanism that helps low- and middle-income countries strengthen their preparedness for future public health emergencies.
Fifty Laboratories and Regional Emergency Centers
The program will reinforce several parts of Cameroon’s disease surveillance system. In the 42 selected municipalities, community-based health alerts will gradually be digitized to speed up reporting and processing by health authorities.
Seven regional call centers will also be established to centralize reports and facilitate rapid emergency response. At the same time, the project will strengthen surveillance at border crossings and other points of entry as the movement of people, animals, and goods continues to increase.
The government also plans to operationalize 10 regional public health emergency operations centers. These facilities are intended to bring decision-making closer to affected regions and reduce reliance on centralized coordination from Yaoundé.
Fifty laboratories will receive investments to improve diagnostic capacity, quality assurance, secure sample transport, and genomic surveillance, which will help identify pathogen mutations and track their spread. The project also includes measures to improve interoperability among health information systems and expand surveillance of antimicrobial resistance, a growing threat driven by the inappropriate use of antibiotics.
A One Health Strategy
The initiative is built around the "One Health" approach, which recognizes the close links between human, animal, and environmental health.
According to Public Health Minister Malachie Manaouda, "epidemics cannot be effectively controlled without close coordination among the human, animal, and environmental health sectors."
The program includes training in field epidemiology, animal health, and emergency management for healthcare professionals, veterinarians, community health workers, local governments, and environmental stakeholders. Cameroon has been preparing the project with the World Bank since 2025. Early discussions envisioned a program worth about $90 million, but the financing package finalized in July 2026 nearly doubled the total resources available.
The investment follows several public health crises—including COVID-19, cholera, mpox, measles, and meningitis—that exposed persistent weaknesses in disease reporting, institutional coordination, and the speed of emergency response.
Cutting the Time Between Detection and Response
The program's performance will be measured in part against the international "7-1-7" target: detecting a public health event within seven days, confirming and reporting it within one day, and launching an effective response within the following seven days. The objective is therefore not simply to purchase equipment or establish new facilities. It is to shorten the time between the appearance of the first cases, the identification of a threat, and the deployment of an effective public health response.
"The project's success will not be measured by the number of meetings held, but by shorter detection times, more effective coordination, and the number of lives protected," Manaouda said at the launch ceremony.
Achieving that goal will depend on the timely disbursement of co-financing, the availability of qualified personnel, and the long-term maintenance of new equipment. The central challenge will be converting the announced $160 million into lasting operational capacity across regional health systems, laboratories, border posts, and local communities.
