Anything but a public – health order, with mechanisms better suited to prepare for and respond to the next health danger, is required for Africa, and it is ready for it. We have spent decades working in Africa on outbreak response, research, and capacity development, and we have seen firsthand how poor health systems create ideal ground for the emergence and spread of hazardous infections.
A promising cadre of knowledgeable and skilled African health experts has also emerged throughout this period.
Now a new health order is necessary to offer the networking and infrastructure for them to employ their abilities to maximum effect.
To achieve a new healthcare order, African governments must increase investment in health research and development, innovation, and manufacturing. This would support a vibrant pharmaceutical industry, which we believe is essential for building resilient health systems.
The COVID-19 epidemic has highlighted several of Africa’s healthcare access concerns. Despite the greatest efforts, Africa lags substantially behind the rest of the globe in COVID-19 testing, immunization, and therapies. The rate of testing in Africa is more than 40 times lower than in Europe. Less than 10% of the continent’s 1.2 billion inhabitants are immunized, compared to at least 50% of the rest of the world.
This predicament has made African countries realize the importance of taking matters into their own hands by building local manufacturing capacity for diagnostics, vaccines, and treatments to help them navigate the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Furthermore, governments must collaborate more closely with scientists.
Manufacturing capacity
There is an urgent need to boost Africa’s capacity to produce vaccines.
Pharmaceutical firms exist in 40 of Africa’s 54 countries. However, just six production facilities have been established or are in the planning stages.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), just five African countries have full vaccine manufacturing capability, with all of them producing only a small amount of vaccine. For the most part, their contribution is restricted to “fill and finish” activities, such as creating active medicinal components and filling and packaging vials.
Almost all vaccine-producing countries rely on outside financing to expand their capabilities. South Africa, for example, obtained assistance to expand its industrial capacity from the US International Development Finance Corporation and European partners through the African Union (AU).
The Partnerships for African Vaccine Manufacturing were launched in 2021 by the African Union and Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The goal is to build up vaccine production in Africa through pan-African and worldwide collaborations. By 2040, the continent will have met 60% of Africa’s routine immunisation needs.
Partnership between government and scientists
Governments must collaborate more closely with scientists who have a better grasp of highly contagious illnesses and viruses and can offer appropriate policy advice.
Furthermore, governments must lower barriers to health innovation and actively assist African scientists and research centers.
Investing more time and resources in public health institutions is one approach to ensure this happens. The Brazilian Oswaldo Cruz Institute is an example of such an institution. It was founded in 1900 as an emergency response to the major health problems facing Brazil at the time. The bubonic plague, yellow fever, and smallpox were among them.
These diseases are bringing down the population and impeding the country’s economic and social progress. The threat posed by COVID-19 back then was similar to the threat posed by COVID-19 now.
The institute is responsible for a wide range of public health issues. Hospital and ambulatory care are two examples. health-related studies
- Vaccinations, medicines, reagents, and diagnostic kits are manufactured.
- Educating health-care staff
- delivering health, science, and technology-related information and communications
The institute provides vital insights on how African countries’ public health institutions might be strengthened.
Toward short- and long-term solutions
In Africa, there is a huge push to improve public health. Prioritizing vaccine production, which can also serve as a foundation for diagnostics and medicines production, is one example.
Prioritizing long-term investments in accordance with the World Health Organization’s Health System Pillars as a means of combating COVID-19 and other health challenges, Pillars has the ability to reorganize health systems in such a manner that their influence is maximized across the whole health landscape.
To fight infectious diseases and build toward Agenda 2063, Africa needs to have stronger national public health institutions and the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC). This is the best time for Africa to do this.
