African Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) hopes its vigilance over the health welfare of Africa will be further developed as it engages with the members of the fourth estate while it fights outbreaks and health challenges in member states.
The WHO and Africa CDC declared an international health emergency after a rise in cases associated with a new strain of mpox in the Democratic Republic of Congo, in early August. This declaration marked an important achievement, for Africa CDC, while addressing the crisis through a New Public Health Order.
In the same month, Africa CDC hosted an editors' roundtable under the theme "Building a Strong and Effective Media Engagement Partnership for Africa CDC" aimed at fostering a stronger media engagement partnership to effectively communicate its mandate, strategic vision for 2023-2027, and the New Public Health Order. The roundtable gathered 25 media stakeholders to discuss strategies for improving public awareness of the Africa CDC's role in protecting the health of the continent.
"Media plays a fundamental role in managing health crises," said Dr. Raji Tajudeen, the acting Deputy Director General of Africa CDC and the Head of Public Health Institutes and Research.
"The COVID-19 pandemic and the mpox outbreak have shown us the significant impact of misinformation and disinformation. Media is now a critical pillar in emergency preparedness and response. Engaging the media effectively is essential for community involvement and outbreak control, as every disease outbreak starts and ends in the community," he told editors and journalists gathered for the meeting.
He hoped Africa CDC could leverage the diversity journalists from across Africa and various institutions, that highlighted "the wealth of perspectives and knowledge".
"For us at Africa CDC such engagements with journalists like yourselves are integral to our strategic communication objectives," Dr. Tajudeen said.
He said drawing from Africa CDC's COVID-19 response experience: "Our goal is to develop a structured mechanism for collaboration, ensuring that information shared with Africa's 1.4 billion people is data-driven and evidence-based. With the upcoming UN General Assembly in September focusing on antimicrobial resistance - a critical issue impacting health and development in Africa - we must present a unified African position, as mandated by our leaders."
Contributions from the workshop's facilitators were equally significant. Bibi Aisha Wadvalla from Health e-News presented data showing a double-digit rise in zoonotic diseases, stressing that the most underserved communities bear the brunt of these challenges. Dr Uzma Alam from the Science for Africa Foundation in Kenya captivated the group with insights on artificial intelligence in health, citing startups like Lifeblood, which leverages AI in transfusion medicine, and Zipline, a pioneer in autonomous drone delivery of essential medical supplies to remote areas.
Yared Yiegezu Zegiorgis, a Senior Research Data Analyst at Africa CDC said local manufacturing is one of the pillars of excellence for Africa CDC, aimed at enhancing Africa's ability to operate independently. "During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the continent faced limited access to available vaccines and related input materials. This situation led to the establishment of Partnerships for African Vaccine Manufacturing (PAVM) in April 2021, to enable Africa to develop, produce, and supply over 60% of its vaccine needs by 2040, up from just 1%," he said. As the workshop concluded, participants reflected on the nature of an anticipated partnership between Africa CDC and the journalists. One opinion was that such collaboration must not compromise editorial independence. Continuous training and sustained engagement emerged as top priorities for the way forward.
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