There is no better time for Africa to implement a new public health order with strengthened national public health institutions. Vaccine manufacturing and sustainable investments can help to reorganise the continent’s health systems to address COVID-19 as well as long-term health issues

Bausch, Daniel

Shey Wiysonge, Charles

English

LSE Research Online

07/04/2022, 14:50 Three pillars to strengthening health systems in African countries | Africa at LSEhttps://blogs.lse.ac.uk/africaatlse/2022/01/21/three-pillars-to-strengthening-health-systems-in-african-countries-covid-vaccine-manufacturing/ 1/6Charles Shey Wiysonge Daniel Bausch January 21st, 2022Three pillars to strengthening health systems in Africancountries0 comments | 3 sharesEstimated reading time: 5 minutesThere is no better time for Africa to implement a new public health orderwith strengthened national public health institutions. Vaccinemanufacturing and sustainable investments can help to reorganise thecontinent’s health systems to address COVID-19 as well as long-termhealth issues.Africa needs, and is ready for, nothing short of a new public health order, withsystems better able to prepare for and respond to the next health threat. Havingengaged in outbreak response, research and capacity development in Africa fordecades, it is all too clear to us how weak health systems provide fertile groundfor the growth and spread of dangerous pathogens. But also growing during thistime is a promising cadre of smart and skilled African health experts.Now a new health order is required to provide the networking and infrastructurefor them to apply their talents for maximum impact.07/04/2022, 14:50 Three pillars to strengthening health systems in African countries | Africa at LSEhttps://blogs.lse.ac.uk/africaatlse/2022/01/21/three-pillars-to-strengthening-health-systems-in-african-countries-covid-vaccine-manufacturing/ 2/6To attain a new health order, African governments need to bolster investment inresearch and development, innovation and manufacturing of health tools. Thiswould underpin a strong pharmaceutical industry, which, in our view, isfundamental to creating resilient health systems.The COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare many of Africa’s challenges in accessinghealth care. Despite the best intentions, Africa lags far behind the world inCOVID-19 testing, vaccination and therapeutics. The testing rate across Africa isover 40 times lower than in Europe. Less than 10% of the continent’s 1.2 billionpeople 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 mattersinto their own hands by developing local manufacturing capacity for diagnostics,vaccines and therapeutics to guide them through the COVID-19 pandemic andbeyond. Governments also need to work more closely with scientists.Manufacturing capacityThere is a critical need to increase Africa’s capacity to produce vaccines. Thereare pharmaceutical companies in 40 of Africa’s 54 countries. But there are onlysix production facilities set up or in the pipeline.According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) only  ve Africancountries have full vaccine manufacturing capabilities, all with modestproduction. For the rest, their contribution is largely limited to ‘ ll and  nish’ work– formulating active pharmaceutical ingredients and  lling and packaging vials.Virtually all countries producing vaccines depend on external funding to enhancetheir capacity. South Africa, for example, through the African Union(AU), received funding from the US International Development FinanceCorporation, and its European partners, to boost its manufacturing capacity.In 2021 the AU and Africa Centres for Disease Control and Preventionannounced the launch of the Partnerships for African Vaccine Manufacturing.The aim is to use pan-African and global partnerships to scale-up vaccinemanufacturing in Africa. The plan is that 60% of African routine immunisationneeds will be met on the continent by 2040.Partnership between government and scientists07/04/2022, 14:50 Three pillars to strengthening health systems in African countries | Africa at LSEhttps://blogs.lse.ac.uk/africaatlse/2022/01/21/three-pillars-to-strengthening-health-systems-in-african-countries-covid-vaccine-manufacturing/ 3/6Governments must work more closely with scientists who have better knowledgeand understanding of highly infectious diseases and viruses, and who canprovide sound advice to guide policy action. In addition, governments mustreduce barriers to health innovation and actively support African researchers andcentres involved in the sciences.One way of ensuring this happens is putting greater energy and resources intopublic health institutions. An example of such an institution is the BrazilianOswaldo Cruz Institute. It was established in 1900 as an immediate response toaddress Brazil’s greatest health threats at the time. These included the bubonicplague, yellow fever and smallpox. These diseases were decimating thepopulation, hindering the economic and social development of the country. Thesituation was similar to the threat posed by COVID-19 today.The institution has a remarkably broad range of public health responsibilities.These include:• hospital and ambulatory care health-related research• production of vaccines, drugs, reagents, and diagnostic kits• training health workers and• providing information and communications related to health, science, andtechnology.The institute offers valuable lessons on how national public health institutionscan be strengthened on the African continent.Toward short- and long-term solutionsThere is unprecedented momentum to strengthen the public health response inAfrica. This includes prioritising vaccine manufacturing, which can further serveas the foundation for the manufacturing of diagnostics and therapeutics.Prioritising sustainable investments in line with WHO’s Health System Pillarsoffers the potential to reorganise health systems in a way that maximises impactacross the entire health landscape in support of addressing COVID-19 and otherhealth issues.07/04/2022, 14:50 Three pillars to strengthening health systems in African countries | Africa at LSEhttps://blogs.lse.ac.uk/africaatlse/2022/01/21/three-pillars-to-strengthening-health-systems-in-african-countries-covid-vaccine-manufacturing/ 4/6There is no better time than now for Africa to implement a new public healthorder with strengthened national public health institutions and the Africa Centresfor Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) to  ght infectious diseases andcontinue to build towards achieving Agenda 2063.Photo: A Ugandan soldier serving under the African Union Mission in Somalia(AMISOM) takes the COVID-19 jab at the launch of the COVID-19 vaccinationcampaign in Mogadishu, Somalia on 17 May 2021. AMISOM Photo/MokhtarMohamed (CC0 1.0).This article was  rst published on The Conversation, part of a media partnershipbetween the Africa Centres for Disease Control and The Conversation Africa forthe  rst Conference on Public Health in Africa.About the authorPosted In: Health | RecentLeave a Reply Charles Shey Wiysonge is Director at Cochrane South Africa, South AfricanMedical Research Council.Charles Shey WiysongeDaniel Bausch is Professor at the London School of Hygiene &amp; TropicalMedicine.Daniel Bausch

Three pillars to strengthening health systems in African countries

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Three pillars to strengthening health systems in African countries

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