Johannesburg — "Last week marked one year since the first COVID-19 vaccines were administered. A year ago, we all hoped that by now vaccines would be helping us all emerge from the long, dark tunnel of the pandemic. Instead, as we enter the third year of the pandemic, the death toll has more than tripled, and the world remains in its grip. Although the number of reported deaths in Africa is lower than in most other regions, we know that they are under-reported. And the excess deaths caused by the virus, and by disruption to essential health services, are far higher."
These were remarks by Dr. Tedros Adhanom, the World Health Organisation Director-General, at the first-ever International Conference for Public Health in Africa.
The three-day conference attracted over 12 000 participants from across the globe heard over 100 speakers across 7 plenary sessions with discussions from how the African continent can strengthening health systems for better health outcomes to vaccine roll-out, vaccine manufacturing capacity, strengthening capacity, and preparing for the next health system, among many other topics surrounding public health in Africa.
"CPHIA 2021 is creating the foundation that will allow us to usher in a new era for science, partnership, and innovation on the continent. The hope is that this will become the preeminent annual health gathering in Africa – where policymakers, researchers, advocates, community organizations and more come together to learn, address challenges, and chart a path forward together. There are major changes ahead for health on the continent, and this is just the beginning," said Senait Fisseha, Director of Global Programs at The Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation.
Organised by the African Union (AU) and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), this conference was the first of its kind. It was attended by representatives from the private sector, heads of states, World Health Organization (WHO), Public Health, Ministries of Health, scientists, researchers and community health organisations and health professional.
"COVID-19 has created a historic opportunity to build a new public health order that can effectively guard against future health crises. And this inaugural Conference on Public Health in Africa is a first step in making this a reality," Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson, Commission of the African Union said.
As the world continues to battle the Covid-19, the emerging of the Omicron variant that has triggered travel bans in the Southern African countries tells us that the Covid-19 fight is far from over. Less than 20 African countries met the global goal of vaccinating at least 10% of the adult population and only 7% of the African population has been fully vaccinated.
"Building manufacturing capacity is the only way to ensure that Africa does not remain at the back of the queue for life-saving medicines. The uncertainty around the new Omicron variant proves that the pandemic is far from over. We must remain vigilant, and act with a sense of urgency and purpose, both as a continent, and together with our partners around the world," Rwandan President Paul Kagame said.
Kagame put emphasis on four components of new public health order which he said has made good progress but need to do much more and do so faster.
These four components are building the capabilities and professionalism of our continental health bodies, need for a renewed commitment by governments and national parliaments to increase domestic financing for health in Africa, need to invest much more in national health systems and for African countries to work together to implement the Partnership for African Vaccine Manufacturing.
Discussing the role of partnerships, advocacy, and solidarity in achieving global health equity for Covid-19 vaccine, UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima said the new Omicron variant offers a huge risk but also a chance to push the reset button.
"This pandemic can still be remembered in history as the time we chose to put the collective right to safety for all ahead of the commercial monopolies of the few. But we have to act now, together, in solidarity. Africa must raise its voice to demand for global rules to change. We have seen it with HIV/Aids, now with COVID, that for a global health emergency, to beat it, you need a global plan. We cannot achieve equity to vaccines and other life-saving health technologies in isolation. We require international co-operation and solidarity." Byanyima said.
The Covid-19 has exposed the already inadequate health systems of Africa which are potentially overwhelmed by many other diseases including, HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis. Most countries have critical shortage of healthcare workers and lack resources to give adequate health care to its populations. Other shortages this conference highlighted are blood shortages.
Among those that often need blood transfusions are children with severe anaemia resulting from malaria and malnutrition and women with pregnancy-related bleeding and people injured in traffic accidents.
"We need to address the issue of our extremely low blood collection rates in Africa. Despite the fact that blood should be at the centre of any health system, Africa is not collecting enough blood. The WHO recommends that every country should have about 10 unites per 1000 of the population. Most African countries fall short of this, some don't even collect half the required amount," said Philana Mugenyi, Manager at Terumo Blood and Cell Technologies and a leader at the Coalition of Blood for Africa (CoBA), the first and only multi-stakeholder platform dedicated to driving the agenda for adequate, safe and sustainable blood in Africa.
Mugenyi said some of the challenges preventing collection of enough blood is lack of policies that put blood at the front and centre of the health polices, limited financial resources and investment dedicated toward insuring blood accessibility and availability. She says in Africa there is not yet a culture of voluntary, non-remunerated, regular blood donation.
"A lot of countries rely on students from government schools, up to 70% of the blood comes from them and many people who donate blood as adults only do it when they have a patient or a family member in hospital but after that they do not keep donating," she said.
Representing the private sector and speaking on effective platforms for public health dialogue to strengthen health systems, Grace Ssali Kiwanuka, Executive Director at Uganda Healthcare Federation said the private sector adapts, innovates and expands to build health system gaps quickly especially in emergency situation but it is often met with many challanges that hinders their involvement sometimes in issues of public health.
"There are often challenges, policy concerns are usually not addressed in a timely manner and there is no access to affordable financing for growth and development for private sector business owners. There is inadequate public funds allocation to enable the private sector to receive support supervision and training and to be included appropriately and to participate in government initiatives. This brings challenges because at the core of this, government and the private sector lack clear engagements," Kiwanuka said.
Leaders acknowledged that the Covid-19 pushed a lot of governments to find solutions for their public health systems and that there has been good progress.
In April 2021 the Partnerships for African Vaccine Manufacturing (PAVM) was launched by DR Congo President and AU Chairperson, Tshisekedi Felix Tshisekedi
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Tedros stressed the importance of investing in local production of vaccine saying it must take priority. He commended the progress made by the AU and the Africa CDC in establishing Partnership for African Vaccine Manufacturing.
"As you know, the AU and the Africa CDC have established the Partnership for African Vaccine Manufacturing. Several African countries – including Egypt, Morocco, Rwanda and Senegal – have all signed agreements or Memorandums of Understanding for COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing in their countries, and Algeria has begun production," he said.
At the end of the conference, four people were awarded with the CPHIA2021 awards for their leadership in global public health:
Senait Fisseha, an Ethiopian endocrinologist at University of Michigan working with reproductive endocrinology and infertility and Director of international programs at the Susan Buffet Foundation
Jean-Jacques Muyembe Tamfum is the general director of the National Biomedical Research Professor of Medical Virology at the University of Kinshasa
Salim Abdool Karim, a South African Public Health Medicine specialist, epidemiologist and infectious diseases specialist and Vice President of the International Science Council
Agnes Binagwaho is a Rwandan pediatrician and Co-founder and the vice chancellor of the University of Global Health Equity and Adviser to the Director General of the World Health Organisation and a senior lecturer at Harvard University
