Welcome to CORDS

Connecting Organisations for Regional Disease Surveillance (CORDS)

CORDS is a program of Ending Pandemics, comprised of six regional member networks, working in 28 countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Europe. We work to detect and control the spread of infectious diseases by catalysing exchange and collaboration among regional surveillance networks globally. Our vision is a world united against infectious disease.

Infectious disease remains one of the world’s greatest threats to human and animal life, the environment, local communities and economies. Early detection helps keep infection to its area of origin, which in our increasingly mobile world is vital in stopping life threatening diseases such as Zika, Ebola and Yellow Fever. The expertise of CORDS’s member networks in terms of local knowledge and relationships enables prompt disease detection and response, containing outbreaks at source and keeping communities safe.

We are committed to promoting the One Health Approach which recognises that the health of humans is connected to the health of animals and the environment.

CORDS July 2023 Newsletter

Find out the latest from CORDS six regional member networks: CORDS July 2023 Newsletter including:

  • The success of MECIDS as a unique and pragmatic mechanism for cross-border collaboration to enhance surveillance and response to infectious diseases of regional and global importance.
  • How SECID aims to develop and support projects of public interest and health system development initiatives to improve the surveillance and control of communicable diseases and strengthen health security in the countries of the region and beyond.
  • The establishment of SACIDS One Health Foundation to target Community One Health Security, leading to cost-effective national and global health security.
  • How MBDS has successfully utilized existing bilateral & multilateral agreements between governments in the region to expand its cross-border initiative; integrated local, national and regional level health officials; effectively covering almost all key border crossing points in the Mekong Region.

Preventing the Next Pandemic

Read the essay from Mark Smolinksi, President of Ending Pandemics, in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, Winter 2022, to find out more about the work of the organisation to detect and respond to outbreaks faster including the five priority actions that governments, academia, civil society, philanthropists, and the private sector must jointly take to stop the global spread of disease. The article also includes the need to collaborate with neighboring countries, highlighting the vital work of CORDS, a program of Ending Pandemics.