Strengthening Zambia’s Response Using the 7-1-7 Framework: An evaluation of the management of national public health events in 2024.

Abstract

Timely detection, notification, and response are pivotal for controlling public-health emergencies. The 7-1-7 performance framework sets global benchmarks of ≤ 7 days for detection, ≤ 1 day for notification, and ≤ 7 days for response initiation. We evaluated Zambia’s implementation of this framework in 2024.

We retrospectively reviewed all nationally reported public-health events from 1 January to 31 December 2024. Timeliness for each 7-1-7 indicator was calculated, and bottlenecks were classified using the National Action Plan for Health Security bottleneck taxonomy.

Ten public-health events met inclusion criteria. Eight events (80%) achieved the detection target and nine (90%) met the notification target, whereas only two (20%) met the response initiation target. Bottlenecks were concentrated at the health-facility/community level (37%), driven primarily by low clinical suspicion and limited familiarity with case definitions. Key system enablers included community-based surveillance, mobile notification technologies, and task-sharing strategies.

Zambia has made substantial progress in detection and notification but faces persistent delays in initiating early response actions. Strengthening capacity at primary-health-care level, improving access to diagnostics, institutionalising digital notification platforms, establishing flexible financing mechanisms, and enhancing multisectoral collaboration are essential to meet all 7-1-7 targets.