Central American Network for the
Prevention and Control of Emerging and Reemerging Diseases
(RECACER)

Background behind Creation of RECACER

In 1992, at the VII Meeting of the Central American Health Sector (RESSCAD) held in San Salvador, Resolution XIV was adopted as a response to the reemergence of cholera in the Region of the Americas. This resolution was based on Article 42 of the Presidential Declaration of Managua and on the resolutions of the Council of Central American Ministers of Health (COMISCA).

At the RESSCAD meeting, the countries of the Central American subregion recommended that controlling the epidemic demanded joint collaborative efforts from all the countries. The lack of available resources and the meagre chances of controlling several major risk factors contributing to the dissemination of infectious diseases were the underlying reasons behind the recommendation for coordinated epidemiological surveillance actions.

Five years later, at the XIII RESSCAD Meeting in 1997, a proposal was approved to form a Central American Network for Health Information and Communication (INFOCOM), a medium enabling the exchange of information concerning planned interventions for priority health problems. It was foreseen that INFOCOM would develop ten modules, among which two would address the surveillance of acute infectious diseases, with a third focused on outbreak control.

Taking into consideration the above, the countries of the Central American subregion identified the need for structuring and/or strengthening national early warning and rapid-response systems. The logical consequence was the creation of the Central American Network for the Prevention and Control of Emerging and Reemerging Diseases (RECACER), proposed during the XVII RESSCAD Meeting in 2001.

Summary of Meetings

The first RECACER meeting was held in San Salvador, El Salvador, 7-9 May 2001; and the second, in San José, Costa Rica, from 21-22 February 2002, attended by Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama and El Salvador (Haiti and Belice did not attend).

Objectives/Benefits

1. Effectiveness in the utilization of current physical, human and material resources relating to the prevention, detection, research, diagnosis, and control and emerging and reemerging infectious diseases.
2. Prognostication of measures to be taken for the containment of infectious diseases and their associated risks through the use of timely information from other countries.
3. Enhancement of horizontal cooperation capacity for the development of national capabilities.
4. Improvement in negotiating with other countries for the regulation of the exchange of products, services and food that pose potential public health risk.
5. Capacity for the analysis of epidemiological information on the occurrence, distribution and control of cases and outbreaks, thus expanding the knowledge base about the epidemiology of specific diseases.

In addition, each country will have a permanent National Technical Group for Emerging and Reemerging Diseases (GTNER) assigned tasks related to surveillance, prevention and control activities (see conference report for details).

Technical Agreements

• Develop protocols for the prevention and control of communicable diseases prone to causing epidemics.
• Make available resources, technology transfer and human-resource development related to the prevention and control of emerging infectious diseases.
• Promote expert consultancies within the subregion for assisting other countries and/or agencies.
• Seek funding and other modes of financing to sustain the activities of the network.