‘Africa must be self-sufficient’: John Nkengasong on learning the deadly lessons of pandemics

Big manufacturers have been criticised for prioritising agreements with more powerful countries, even when groups of low-income nations had competitive purchasing power through pooled procurements, such as the UN’s Covax scheme and the African Union’s African Vaccine Acquisition Trust. Yet, while both programmes have offered relief, they’ve fallen short of initially high expectations.

There has been some reason for optimism recently. Earlier this month, an agreement on vaccine patent waivers between the US, EU, India and South Africa edged closer. This would allow African countries to manufacture their own.their own vaccines through a World Health Organization scheme offering the countries access to mRNA technology.

“Remember, in 1996, when ARBs [angiotensin II receptor blockers] were available, it took at least 10 years for programmes like Pepfar [the US president’s emergency plan for Aids relief] … to actually come into play to enable Africans to have ARV [antiretroviral] treatment, that is drugs for HIV/Aids. And between that time, about 10 million Africans died.”

“They are both pandemics, but this one [HIV] is moving more quietly. It’s a big concern at this time and it’s an issue that’s very important to me. We have to make sure we aren’t dealing with one pandemic and letting another one spread in silence.”The Africa CDC was launched in 2017, in the aftermath of a devastating Ebola crisis in west and central Africa, where more than 11,000 people died between 2014 and 2016.

Source: Education Headlines (educationheadlines.net)

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