East Africa is a geographic region of the African continent broadly encompassing Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Ethiopia, South Sudan, Somalia, Eritrea, Djibouti, and the island nations of Comoros, Madagascar, Mauritius, and Seychelles, though the precise boundaries vary by institutional and political context. The region includes both Rift Valley and coastal zones, is home to approximately 500 million people, and has some of the world's highest population growth rates. East Africa's health landscape includes a high burden of HIV, Malaria, and tuberculosis as well as emerging concerns around zoonotic spillover, antimicrobial resistance, and neglected tropical diseases. Ethiopia, Uganda, and Kenya are regional health hubs with established national reference laboratories.

Three of the eight states in the ARILAC AMR laboratory capacity programme launched in Addis Ababa on 6 May 2026 are in East Africa: Ethiopia, Uganda, and Mozambique (counting Mozambique as East African by its Indian Ocean coastal orientation). East Africa's inclusion reflects the region's combination of significant agricultural antibiotic use, particularly in East African Rift Valley livestock systems, limited urban clinical laboratory capacity for culture-and-sensitivity testing, and the proximity of multiple ARILAC participant states to Kenya's KEMRI Wellcome Trust Research Programme, which provides a regional scientific anchor for One Health AMR research. The ARILAC programme's four-year One Health framework integrates human and veterinary AMR surveillance, directly relevant to the cross-border livestock corridors of the East African Rift.

Common Questions

Which East African countries are part of the ARILAC AMR programme?

Ethiopia, Uganda, and Mozambique are the East African states participating in ARILAC, the Africa CDC-EU four-year AMR laboratory capacity programme launched in Addis Ababa on 6 May 2026.Source: Africa CDC

Why does East Africa have an antibiotic resistance problem?

East Africa faces AMR driven by antibiotic overuse in both clinical settings, where prescribers often cannot access culture-and-sensitivity tests, and agricultural settings, where livestock antibiotic use goes largely unmonitored. Most clinical laboratories are equipped for HIV and Malaria rapid tests, not bacterial resistance testing.Source: Africa CDC / KEMRI Wellcome

What is KEMRI and how does it relate to East African AMR research?

KEMRI (Kenya Medical Research Institute), run in partnership with the Wellcome Trust, is the primary East African research institution studying AMR and has consistently argued that clinical stewardship programmes are as important as laboratory capacity in the region.Source: KEMRI Wellcome Trust

Source Material

Africa CDC East Africa — Wikipedia

How the World Sees Them

African Union

East Africa is home to the Africa CDC headquarters in Addis Ababa and is a priority geography for the AU's health security agenda, making it a natural focus for the ARILAC programme.

United States

USAID and CDC PEPFAR programmes in East Africa focus primarily on HIV, TB, and malaria; AMR remains a gap in US bilateral health engagement that ARILAC partially addresses through the EU-Africa CDC partnership.

European Union

EU development finance in East African health security is channelled through Team Europe Initiatives and complements PEPFAR, the Global Fund, and bilateral health partnerships from the UK and Germany.