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Tag: Ebola

  • Despite Global Headwinds, WHO’s Africa Meeting Agenda is Narrow and Technical

    Despite Global Headwinds, WHO’s Africa Meeting Agenda is Narrow and Technical

    In the face of a financial crisis and converging health challenges, the Lusaka meeting is an opportunity for WHO AFRO  and Health Ministers to show they can look beyond technical resolutions to address systemic issues 

    The seventy-fifth session of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) regional committee for Africa (RC75) will open in Lusaka on Monday (25 August) against a backdrop of transition at both regional and global levels.

     Professor Mohamed Janabi, the new Regional Director for Africa, takes office at a time of mounting expectations. His leadership begins as Dr Tedros Ghebreyesus prepares to conclude his term as WHO Director-General in Geneva, amid debates about how the organisation should adapt to fractured geopolitics, constrained multilateralism and shrinking aid. 

    Across the system, WHO is under pressure to prove its relevance, demonstrate accountability, and deliver impact in an era of fiscal austerity. Nowhere are these challenges sharper than in Africa.

    African health systems are under extraordinary strain. External assistance for health has fallen steeply in the past three years, while debt servicing has become one of the largest line items in national budgets, often exceeding health allocations. 

    In 2025, African governments are projected to spend more than $80 billion on debt servicing, while only a fraction of that goes to health. 

    Only a few countries, such as Rwanda, Botswana and Cabo Verde, meet the Abuja Commitment to allocate 15% of national budgets to health. Most fall far below, leaving systems exposed at a time when the frequency and severity of public health emergencies are rising. 

    Outbreaks of cholera, Ebola, mpox and others have increased by more than 40% since 2022, often intensified by climate-related disasters.

    This fiscal squeeze coincides with a dangerous set of global pressures. Donor retrenchment is evident as major development partners cut or redirect their health aid. 

    Climate change is driving extreme weather events that destroy infrastructure, displace populations and worsen food insecurity, with inevitable consequences for disease outbreaks. 

    Non-communicable diseases (NCDs), which already account for more than a third of deaths in sub-Saharan Africa, are on track to become the leading cause of mortality by 2030. 

    Health workforce migration continues to undermine national capacity as doctors and nurses leave for better opportunities abroad, while local supply chains and manufacturing remain weak and dependent on imports. Underpinning all of this is the persistent lack of reliable, interoperable data systems that can guide effective decision-making.

    The International Organization for Migration conducts mpox screenings along the DRC- Ugandan border to boost surveillance.

    New global health order

    These challenges are not new, and African leaders have already articulated responses. The New Public Health Order championed by Africa CDC calls for strong national public health institutions, expanded workforce capacity, local manufacturing and resilient financing. 

    The Lusaka Agenda calls for five strategic shifts for global health initiatives (GHIs) to more effectively and efficiently complement domestic financing to maximize health impacts in support of country-led priorities and trajectories to universal health coverage (UHC). 

    Most recently the Accra Initiative calls for a reimagined global health order rooted in sovereignty, equity, and diversified financing. The initiative emphasises that health must be treated not only as a social good but as a driver of productivity and innovation, central to Africa’s industrialisation, trade integration, and geo-economic ambitions. 

    These frameworks, along with Agenda 2063, provide a coherent vision of where Africa wants to go. The question is whether the annual assembly of health ministers in Lusaka will align its agenda with this broader context.

    Narrow technical agenda 

    The RC75 agenda includes a strong set of technical items. Ministers will discuss strategies on rehabilitation, oral health, safe blood supply, primary health care, malaria and health emergencies. 

    They will review progress on the Regional Health Data Hub, which aims to integrate and standardise health information across countries. These are important initiatives and deserve attention. Data systems are a long-neglected foundation of service delivery, and rehabilitation services remain inaccessible to most Africans who need them.

    Yet the agenda is narrow when set against the breadth of today’s global headwinds. Debt distress and fiscal stress are barely acknowledged, even though they are the defining constraint on health investment across the continent. 

    The committee cannot be expected to solve a sovereign debt crisis, and WHO itself has limited tools given its dependence on earmarked donor funding, but it can and should create a forum for member states to confront the reality that health financing is collapsing. Without such recognition, resolutions risk being aspirational rather than executable.

    Frank conversation is needed

    The massive reduction in official development  assistance, particularly the termination of the US Agency for International Assistance (USAID) earlier this year, has left many Afircan countries scrambling to fill gaps in their health budgets.

    The retreat of donors and shifts in ODA are also absent from the discussions. This is striking given that WHO itself is deeply affected by these trends, with its programmes increasingly constrained by the volatility and conditionality of partner financing. 

    A frank conversation is needed about how to sustain essential services when aid cannot be relied upon. Similarly, the climate crisis is scarcely visible on the agenda despite its obvious health consequences. 

    NCDs and workforce migration are also marginal, even though they represent some of the most urgent pressures on African health systems. Local manufacturing and resilient supply chains are mentioned only obliquely through discussions on procurement, without the explicit focus that the New Public Health Order and the Accra Initiative demand.

    This is not to diminish the technical items before the committee. Oral health, blood safety and rehabilitation are all areas where neglected needs can be addressed. But the balance feels misaligned when the existential pressures of financing, climate and workforce are sidelined. It is here that WHO AFRO and its member states must recalibrate. 

    Even if the secretariat lacks the fiscal or geopolitical leverage to fix the debt crisis or reverse donor cuts, it can help countries navigate these realities more deliberately. It can frame health as integral to debt sustainability, elevate NCDs and workforce retention as cross-cutting threats, and ensure that every resolution is grounded in the current economic and political context.

    Converging crises

    For member states, the responsibility is even greater. Governments must take concrete steps to mobilise domestic resources, embed climate resilience and NCD prevention in their primary care strategies, and invest in policies that retain health workers at home. 

    They need to move beyond pilot projects and declarations towards serious investment in local manufacturing and supply chain resilience. They must also treat interoperable digital systems not as an optional extra but as a core part of health infrastructure.

    The Lusaka meeting is an opportunity for WHO AFRO and its ministers to demonstrate that they can look beyond technical resolutions to the systemic issues that determine whether those resolutions can be implemented. 

    Success will not be measured by the number of documents adopted but by whether those documents acknowledge the realities of fiscal constraint, climate disruption, donor volatility and workforce attrition. 

    If RC75 helps countries confront these constraints honestly and points them towards pragmatic choices that protect primary health care, strengthen data, and invest in resilience, then it will have done its job. If not, it risks becoming another well-intentioned meeting disconnected from the urgent pressures facing African health systems.

    At this moment of converging crises, the need is clear. Health must be recognised in debt frameworks, climate and NCD resilience must be elevated in primary care, and digital systems and local procurement must be treated as core investments. RC75 should serve as a pivot towards that reality. Africa’s health future depends on it.

     Dr Ebere Okereke is a global health expert and Chief Program Officer at Reaching the Last Mile.

  • Newly Launched African Epidemic Fund to Strengthen Health Security

    Newly Launched African Epidemic Fund to Strengthen Health Security

    The African Epidemic Fund is now operational, providing the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) with flexible funding to support countries across the continent in outbreak preparedness and response.

    This much-anticipated development is set to be a game-changer. No longer constrained by bureaucratic hurdles, Africa CDC now has the flexibility to rapidly deploy funds where they are needed most, allowing for faster and more efficient outbreak responses. Dr. Jean Kaseya, Director General of Africa CDC, described it as a landmark moment in the fight for improved health security on the continent.

    “This is the vehicle through which we can receive funding without any limitation, without any bureaucracy, to support African countries in preparing for and responding to outbreaks… We are celebrating that at Africa CDC,” he said.

    The fund was formally established following the High-Level Meeting on Domestic Health Financing, a collaborative initiative between Africa CDC, the African Union Commission, and AUDA-NEPAD. It arrives at a crucial time as Africa grapples with multiple health crises, including a Marburg outbreak in Tanzania, Ebola in Uganda, and rising cases of cholera and febrile illnesses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).

    Furthermore, the mpox outbreak remains ongoing, six months after Africa CDC declared it a health emergency of continental concern. In February, Africa CDC’s Emergency Consultative Group reviewed the situation, recommending that the outbreak status remain in place due to rising case numbers, the emergence of a highly transmissible new variant, and continued vaccine shortages.

    Dr. Kaseya stressed that the new epidemic fund offers Africa CDC greater autonomy and agility in outbreak response.

    “It will be accessible without the need for approval from any AU organ, giving Africa CDC more autonomy,” he said.

    Transparency will be a cornerstone of the fund’s operations. Dr. Kaseya affirmed that Africa CDC will manage the fund directly, ensuring strict accountability. A governing board will oversee its activities, with regular updates provided to AU policy organs. Most importantly, the fund’s transactions will be publicly accessible, with detailed tracking available to ensure transparency.

    “The African Epidemic Fund will be available on the Africa CDC website. We want people to see, in real time, how much funding we receive, how it is being used, and where it is allocated. That’s the level of transparency we are bringing to Africa,” Dr. Kaseya added.

    The need for such a fund has never been more pressing, as Africa has witnessed a sharp increase in public health events—from 152 in 2022 to 213 in 2024. This surge highlights the growing vulnerability of African nations to health threats.

    At the same time, the challenges surrounding the mpox outbreak have worsened following the suspension of U.S. government aid, which disrupted key outbreak control efforts such as sample collection and shipment. These disruptions emphasize the urgency for Africa to develop self-sustaining funding mechanisms to address ongoing and future health crises.

    Even so, efforts to combat mpox are entering a critical phase, with expectations that the new fund will provide much-needed resources to contain the outbreak. Dr. Ngashi Ngongo, Head of the Mpox Incident Support Team at Africa CDC, described this as the “intensification phase” and outlined the next steps in the response.

    “In the next three months, we will focus on getting the outbreak under control, while the final three months of this plan will shift towards early recovery and resilience-building,” he said.

    The immediate next steps in epidemic control will focus on strengthening surveillance systems, scaling up vaccination campaigns, and enhancing community-based interventions to break transmission chains. Africa CDC, in collaboration with WHO and other partners, will continue supporting affected countries by mobilizing resources, expanding laboratory capacity, and accelerating vaccination efforts to curb the spread of mpox and other health threats.

  • US Aid Pause Comes Amid Multiple Disease Outbreaks in Africa

    US Aid Pause Comes Amid Multiple Disease Outbreaks in Africa

    Ebola in Uganda. Marburg in Tanzania. Cholera in Angola. War in Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) that escalated the risk of multiple disease outbreaks – and then the United States decision to halt foreign aid for 90 days and order grantees to stop all work.

    “This is not the kind of week we like,” Dr Jean Kaseya, Director-General of Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) told a media briefing on Thursday.

    “I was shaking, to be honest with you, when there was this US pause regarding the [Marburg] response in Tanzania,” Kaseya admitted. “And if we talk about mpox, we have a pledge of $500 million from the US. We got around 60% from what the US committed, and we are waiting for this 40%.”

    However, Kaseya expressed gratitude that the US had exempted “life-saving humanitarian assistance” from the 90-day pause. The US State Department has defined humanitarian assistance as “core to life-saving medicine, medical services, food, shelter, and subsistence assistance, as well as supplies and reasonable administrative costs as necessary to deliver such assistance”. 

    Africa CDC is waiting to engage with the US about its financial assistance once the appointment of the US Secretary for Health and Human Services (HHS) is finalised and the head of the US CDC is appointed. Trump’s HHS pick, Robert F Kennedy Jr is currently in Senate confirmation hearings.

    Uganda reports Ebola – and maybe DRC too

    Uganda announced an Ebola outbreak on Thursday, following the death on Wednesday of a 32-year-old male nurse in Kampala after five days of illness.

    Uganda has set up an incident management team and is tracing 45 contacts, mostly people working in Mbale Hospital in eastern Uganda and Abubakar Islamic Hospital in Kampala.

    Kaseya said that there was also a possible Ebola outbreak in DRC where seven out of 12 suspected cases had died. Samples from five of the cases have been sent to a laboratory in Kinshasa for diagnosis.

    Ebola in Uganda 30 January 2025

    Conditions in war-torn Goma ripe for epidemic

    Kaseya expressed deep concern about people in Goma, the capital of DRC’s North Kivu province, which was taken over by Rwandan-backed M23 rebels this week.

    Hundreds of people have reportedly died and the city is without water, electricity and the internet. 

    However, Kaseya said there was a high risk of multiple health outbreaks in the heavily congested city, home to up to three million people including almost one million who have fled fighting elsewhere.

    “We are talking about an area where so many people are together. Health infrastructure is broken. Access to basic services, even water and sanitation, doesn’t really exist. In addition to mpox, we have cholera outbreaks, measles and other diseases. I’m calling on our leaders to stop this unnecessary war that already killed 300 people. The guns cannot kill all of us, but outbreaks can.”

    Kaseya said he did not know whether Goma’s health laboratory had been affected, and if it had been destroyed in fighting this would affect the country’s disease surveillance.

    The rebels control the airport, so the L16 mpox vaccines donated by Japan that recently arrived in the DRC’s capital, Kinshasa, can’t reach Goma at present.

    Meanwhile, mpox continues to dominate the outbreak statistics on the continent with almost 10,000 suspected cases reported in the past week along with 85 deaths. The one bright spark, however, is that Burundi has finally agreed to start vaccinating its citizens after months of scepticism.

    Africa CDC is also supporting Angola to address a cholera outbreak that had already killed 51 people and infected around 1200 people. Some 2000 cholera vaccines will reach  Angola on 7 February. 

    ‘Difficult times’

    “We are facing a very difficult moment. Western countries are decreasing their aid budgets,” said Kaseya, noting that in 2023, the US gave Africa in $8 billion in assistance, mostly for health and humanitarian assistance. 

    “African countries are facing a tough economic situation. Projection from Africa CDC shows that we can expect two to four million additional deaths per year by 2025, which will push 39 million people into poverty, and reverse even the gain in mortality almost comparable to what we had 25 years ago,” said Kaseya.

    “All of these conditions can lead one day to a pandemic from Africa. And if there is a pandemic from Africa, all of us in the world will be affected.”

    African leaders are meeting on 14 February at the invitation of Rwandan President Paul Kagame to discuss more sustainable financing for health.

  • Gavi concludes agreements to facilitate donations of 305,000 mpox vaccine doses to Nigeria

    Gavi concludes agreements to facilitate donations of 305,000 mpox vaccine doses to Nigeria

    …Vaccines will be delivered to countries affected by the upsurge of mpox that continues to constitute a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). The first shipment of 11,200 doses arrived in Nigeria on 20 December

    A shipment of 11,200 doses, donated by the United States of America and facilitated by Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, have been shipped to Abuja, Nigeria, with delivery in the country expected today. This follows agreements signed in November by Gavi to facilitate the donation of 305,000 doses of mpox vaccine to support the global and continental response.

    On 24 September, the US announced its intention to donate up to 1 million doses to support the mpox emergency and began discussions to donate the first 305,000 of those through Gavi.

    The doses, manufactured by Bavarian Nordic, have been allocated to affected countries through the Access and Allocation Mechanism (AAM) for mpox, led by the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi, UNICEF and the World Health Organization (WHO).

    These doses are part of the 899,000 doses allocated through the AAM first round to nine African countries hardest hit by the mpox outbreak. Nearly 6 million vaccine doses from multiple nations and organisations are expected to be available by the end of 2024. This includes 500,000 doses of the MVA-BN vaccine that Gavi procured utilising the First Response Fund in September, a month after PHEIC was declared.

    Commenting on the agreement, Dr Sania Nishtar, CEO of Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, said: “We thank the US for these donations, which substantially strengthen the global mpox response. In addition to the 500,000 doses that Gavi procured directly in September through our First Response Fund, working with our donors, we now have legal frameworks in place to facilitate a substantial volume of additional pledged doses, which we will work with our partners to ensure are rolled out as quickly as possible.”

    Gavi will also use the First Response Fund to cover the delivery costs of the doses it procures or facilitates. The funding was established this year in response to key lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic.

    “The donation through Gavi builds on the U.S. government’s commitment to providing over a million mpox vaccines to international communities dealing with the current mpox outbreak,” said Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR) Dawn O’Connell. “Viruses don’t respect borders, and both international and domestic mpox coordination remains a top priority for ASPR.”

    The allocation of the US doses, as per the AAM, includes the now shipped and soon to be delivered 11,200 doses to Nigeria. Next year, 273,000 doses are planned for the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and 19,600 doses for Rwanda. Gavi is in discussion with the US regarding the remaining 695,020 doses, which will be allocated by the AAM when countries are ready to receive them.

    In addition to facilitating donations from the US and Bavarian Nordic, Gavi has provided emergency cash support of US$ 2.7 million to DRC and US$ 1.5 million to Rwanda for the vaccine roll-out.

  • Shipment to Nigeria marks first-ever use of new meningitis vaccine

    Shipment to Nigeria marks first-ever use of new meningitis vaccine

    Nigeria has become the first country to receive the new MenFive vaccine from the Gavi-funded global stockpile, with a shipment delivered by UNICEF arriving last evening. Doses will be used to respond to an ongoing meningococcus C outbreak, targeting to vaccinate around a million children in six local government areas in Jigawa state: Babura, Birniwa, Gagarawa, Gumel, Maigatari, and Sule Tankarkar.

    Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance funds the global stockpiles of vaccines against cholera, Ebola, meningitis and yellow fever, and supports outbreak response campaigns in lower-income countries. Country requests to these stockpiles are managed by the World Health Organization’s International Coordinating Group (ICG) on Vaccine Provision. The ICG has approved the deployment of 1,043,377 doses of MenFive in response to Nigeria’s request.

    The MenFive vaccine, developed through a 13-year collaboration between PATH and Serum Institute of India, with support from the UK government’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, received WHO prequalification in July 2023. The vaccine protects against the five main serogroups of meningococcal meningitis impacting Africa – meningococcal serogroups A, C, W, Y, and X. It is the only vaccine that protects against serogroup X.

    Dr Tokunbo Oshin, Director of High Impact Countries at Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance comments on this milestone:

    “With outbreaks of infectious diseases on the rise worldwide, new innovations such as MenFive are critical in helping us fight back. Thanks to vaccines, we have eliminated large and disruptive outbreaks of meningitis A in Africa: now we have a tool to respond to other meningococcal meningitis serogroups that still cause large outbreaks resulting in long-term disability and deaths.

    Gavi will be working closely with the Nigerian government as well as our partners such as UNICEF and WHO to support the response to this outbreak.”

    This first shipment signals the start of Gavi support for a multivalent meningococcal conjugate vaccine (MMCV) program, which will see the MenFive vaccine rolled out through outbreak response, routine immunization, and catch-up campaigns in high-risk countries. Over the years, Gavi has worked with countries to support vaccination against meningitis A, reaching nearly 400 million children through campaigns and routine immunisation. These efforts have helped Africa defeat meningitis A, with no new cases detected since 2017. The addition of MenFive into health systems’ toolkit holds out the possibility that the other circulating serogroups could also one day be defeated.

    As of the end of 2023, the global meningococcal vaccines stockpile had been accessed 62 times by 16 countries since 2009, with more than 29 million doses deployed from the stockpile in support to countries.

  • Vaccine Alliance reaches more than one billion children

    Vaccine Alliance reaches more than one billion children

    • Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, has now facilitated the immunisation of more than one billion children with childhood vaccines
    • The Alliance is on track to immunise 300 million children between 2021 and 2025 and prevent 7-8 million deaths during this period, generating an additional US$80-100 billion economic benefits
    • This comes as global leaders gather in Madrid for the Global Vaccine Impact Conference, an opportunity to learn from the COVAX response to COVID-19 and global health threats to continue building a pandemic prevention, preparedness and response infrastructure

    Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance has helped to vaccinate over one billion children with routine vaccines since it was established in 2000 – alongside enabling billions of critical vaccinations during campaigns, emergencies and pandemics – and is on course to achieve a majority of its 2025 strategic objectives. In total, Gavi has enabled roughly 6 billion vaccinations around the world, protecting children and adults against 19 infectious diseases. These new figures were unveiled at the Global Vaccine Impact Conference, co-hosted by the Spanish Government, which kicked off in Madrid today and saw the publication of a new report, Raising Generation ImmUnity.

    Every year, Gavi provides vaccines to countries to protect half the world’s children and despite the huge strain placed on countries’ health systems by the COVID-19 pandemic, the report finds that it remains on or ahead of schedule in eight of 11 key ambitious commitments it made for the period 2021-2025 (Progress covering two of the five years of the 2021-2025 period). These include efforts to immunise a further 300 million children, prevent between seven and eight million future deaths and unlock US$80-US$100 billion in economic benefits.

    Commitments where Gavi’s ambitious goals require additional effort during the current five-year period are in securing further cost savings from manufacturers, increasing countries’ own financial contribution and in helping countries transition away from Gavi support.

    These encouraging signs that resilient health systems in the 57 Gavi-implementing countries are having some success in bouncing back following the pandemic appear to be borne out by preliminary data demonstrating a recovery of routine immunisation coverage in 2022. Based on a preliminary analysis of country administrative data shared with Gavi, coverage across Gavi-implementing countries increased by approximately three percentage points in 2022. This contrasts with a 5% point drop between 2020 and 2021 and will help coverage levels return closer to their historical baseline. Gavi’s goal is to continue that catch-up while also reaching the millions of “zero dose” children still missing out on life-saving vaccinations. 

    Commenting these figures, Prof José Manuel Barroso, Gavi Board Chair, said: “For over twenty years, Gavi’s operating model has been a solution to the world’s immunisation challenges and at no time was this more the case than in recent years, when it has helped countries not only to weather the worst public health crisis in a century, but protect more and more people from deadly, preventable diseases.”

    In addition to its work on essential childhood vaccines, Gavi manages stockpiles of vaccines against Cholera, Yellow Fever, meningococcal disease and Ebola, giving it a crucial role in outbreak response. Gavi also co-leads COVAX, the global initiative for COVID-19 vaccine equity, alongside the World Health Organization (WHO), UNICEF and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI). COVAX has shipped almost 2 billion doses of vaccines – and as the primary source of COVID-19 vaccines for lower-income economies, prevented 2.7 million deaths across 92 lower-income countries. This role in health crisis response gives Gavi vital insights into future efforts on pandemic prevention and preparedness.

    “COVID-19 proved beyond a doubt the value of immunisation. We built our response on top of a tried-and-tested immunisation system. With Gavi support, we can strengthen this platform to ensure our health system can withstand future outbreaks”, said H.E. Budi Gunadi Sadikin, Minister of Health of Indonesia. 

    “In my country, where climate-change and displacement are making it harder, not easier, to deliver health services – vaccines are an essential way to manage outbreaks and save lives,” said Dr Abdelmadjid Abderahim, Minister of Public Health and Prevention, Chad.

    “It is an evolutionary certainty that outbreaks of infectious diseases will only increase due to climate change and population growth. That is why, in addition to protecting a whole generation of young people against preventable diseases, our Alliance has delivered billions more doses of vaccines to help countries fight outbreaks and pandemics. Despite the increasing complexity of the world in which we operate, Gavi is having more impact than ever before, responding to a growing list of global health challenges,” said Dr Seth Berkley, CEO of Gavi.

    “Millions of children missed out on essential vaccines in the last three years. Catching up these children is a priority this year, as we rebuild our health systems post-pandemic. Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, are a critical part of the push to catch up, recover and strengthen immunization systems so each child can thrive,” said Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO).

    “Reaching 1 billion children with lifesaving vaccines is an impressive milestone and a testament to what we can achieve for children when we work together. Yet the job is far from done. As health systems and the immunization services they provide continue to recover from the impact of the pandemic, it’s critical that we continue our joint efforts to ensure that children, everywhere, have access to routine childhood vaccinations. It offers children the best shot at living healthy and happy lives,” said Catherine Russell, Executive Director of UNICEF.

    Global Vaccine Impact Conference

    The publication of Raising Generation ImmUnity comes as world leaders and immunisation experts gather in Madrid for the Global Vaccine Impact Conference, the first in-person conference on the state of global vaccination since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Opened by Spain’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares and taking place during 13-15 June, the Conference will bring heads of state or ministers together with leaders from the Vaccine Alliance, civil society, business and academia to assess the current state of immunisation as well as the challenges that lie ahead. In addition to considering the findings in the report, the meeting’s agenda will also cover other key strategic concerns for the Alliance, such as how to rejuvenate HPV vaccinations, the historic roll out of malaria vaccines, how to mitigate the impact of climate change and prepare for the next pandemic.

  • Institut Pasteur de Dakar, African Risk Capacity, West African Health Organization, and AfriCatalyst Form an Alliance to Strengthen Epidemic Preparedness and Response

    Institut Pasteur de Dakar, African Risk Capacity, West African Health Organization, and AfriCatalyst Form an Alliance to Strengthen Epidemic Preparedness and Response

    The Institut Pasteur de Dakar (IPD) has entered into a partnership with the African Risk Capacity (ARC), AfriCatalyst and the West African Health Organization (WAHO) to strengthen outbreak preparedness and response to high-consequence infectious diseases in West Africa such as Ebola, Marburg, Lassa fever, Meningococcal meningitis, and emerging pathogens of concern. The partnership will also evaluate the capacities for epidemiological surveillance and laboratory diagnostics for viral haemorrhagic fevers in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), model the risk of new and re-emerging outbreaks and epidemics in the region and put in place epidemic contingency plans and countermeasures.

    As a WHO collaborating centre for arboviruses (infections caused by a group of viruses spread to people by the bite of infected insects such as mosquitoes and ticks)and viral haemorrhagic fevers, IPD will provide expert opinion to enhance the capacity of the program to evaluate surveillance and laboratory capacities in the region.

    IPD has a unique combination of biostatistics, bioinformatics, mathematical modelling, epidemiology, software development and virology that will be used to input parameters for simulating outbreaks and transmission dynamics in the region. IPD will support the development of realistic outbreak scenarios deployed to prepare ECOWAS member states in their training and preparedness for response and national contingency plans.

    “The Alliance represents a unique partnership of leading African institutions with a global outlook that brings expertise in science, policy, governance, and finance to advance global public health security through epidemic intelligence and outbreak response. As the project meets its goals, the Alliance will represent a critically important convergence of complementary expertise to promote health security in Africa and mitigate the risk of global threats spreading to and from the region”, said Dr. Amadou Alpha Sall, CEO, Institut Pasteur de Dakar.

    As evidenced by the recent challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, surveillance systems and outbreak preparedness and response are under-resourced. However, with clear leadership, countries in West Africa can introduce policies informed by evidence and by recent epidemics to protect their populations and limit the spread of external threats to West Africa and those endemic in the region and beyond.

    For several years, IPD, ARC, and WAHO have been actively involved in efforts to mitigate the adverse impact of health emergencies in the ECOWAS region, in line with their respective mandate and in collaboration with various partners, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF).

    BMGF support will play a catalytic role for the activities of the Alliance by enhancing AfriCatalyst’s efforts to help coordinate and advance the common agenda of the Alliance, including actions planned under existing and forthcoming partnership agreements to amplify the potential impact of these partnerships as well as the gender sensitivity of epidemic preparedness and response.

    “We look forward to supporting the critical work being undertaken by ARC, WAHO, and IPD in the context of the Alliance to strengthen epidemic preparedness and response in our region. We’re thrilled to be partnering with the BMGF as we fulfill this unique responsibility,” said Daouda Sembene, Chief Executive Officer at AfriCatalyst.

    “ARC welcomes this great Africa-led initiative supported by the BMGF as we continue to develop our Outbreaks & Epidemics risk insurance product to enable early containment of epidemic-prone diseases and respond to acute public health emergencies,” said Ibrahima Cheikh Diong, United Nations Assistant Secretary-General and ARC Group Director General.

    IPD is rising to the challenge of scaling new innovations, tools and systems to contribute to the global effort to end epidemics and prevent pandemics. In doing so, it aims to become a pioneer for innovative health solutions in an effort to advance inclusivity in access to critical health services in Africa.

  • World Hepatitis Day: Increase Hepatitis Screening Centre- Cookey, LASUTH Consultant

    World Hepatitis Day: Increase Hepatitis Screening Centre- Cookey, LASUTH Consultant

    The Gastroenterology Unit of the Lagos State University Teaching Hospital (LASUTH) recently commemorated the 2021 edition of the World Hepatitis Day. Themed “Hepatitis Can’t Wait’, the department did a health walk to create awareness in the community on the essence of quick testing and management of hepatitis.

    While shedding light on the theme for the year and what it means, Dr. Cara Cookey, a Consultant Physician and Gastroenterologist in a statement said it refers to the urgency with which the world must act to eliminate the menace called hepatitis because every 30 seconds, a person dies from hepatitis related illness even in the current COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Cookey further stated that one of the ways to achieve the theme of the World Hepatitis Day is to sensitize the general public to test and know their hepatitis status, by increasing the number of hepatitis screening centers and also by making rapid diagnostic kits readily available.

    She further disclosed that Gastroenterologists and Hematologists in Nigeria are not resting on their oars as the Society of Gastroenterology and Hepatology in Nigeria (SOGHIN) has been working tirelessly to advocate for creating awareness for the Nigerian burden of viral hepatitis; seek political will to jointly facilitate prevention, diagnosis and treatment of viral hepatitis.

    The Unit engaged in some activities to mark the day which included a courtesy visit to the Management. During the courtesy call Prof. Adetokunbo O. Fabamwo, the Chief Medical Director of LASUTH, harped on the need for health workers to pay attention to screening.

    He said that not much attention was given to the hepatitis scourge as AIDS was attended to by multinationals and international bodies; he was however grateful that attention is gradually being given to hepatitis. Prof. Fabamwo made a call for a national action that would have the same strength and empowerment as the action against HIV/AIDS, COVID-19 and Ebola.