Africa needs, and is ready for, nothing short of a new public health order, with systems better able to prepare for and respond to the next health threat. Having engaged in outbreak response, research and capacity development in Africa for decades, it is all too clear to us how weak health systems provide fertile ground for the growth and spread of dangerous pathogens. But also growing during this time is a promising cadre of smart and skilled African health experts.
Now a new health order is required to provide the networking and infrastructure for them to apply their talents for maximum impact.
To attain a new health order, African governments need to bolster investment in research and development, innovation and manufacturing of health tools. This would underpin a strong pharmaceutical industry, which, in our view, is fundamental to creating resilient health systems.
The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare many of Africa’s challenges in accessing health care. Despite the best intentions, Africa lags far behind the world in COVID-19 testing, vaccination and therapeutics. The testing rate across Africa is over 40 times lower than in Europe. Less than 10% of the continent’s 1.2 billion people are vaccinated, compared with at least 50% of the rest of the world.
This situation has brought home to African countries the need to take matters into their own hands by developing local manufacturing capacity for diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics to guide them through the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. Governments also need to work more closely with scientists.
