AFRICA SEEKS SOLUTIONS AT 1ST PUBLIC HEALTH CONFERENCE

MBABANE – Disease knows no boundaries.

Africa will hold its inaugural International Conference on Public Health (CPHIA) December 14-16, 2021. The CPHIA, hosted by the Africa Centre for Diseases Control and Prevention (CDC), will create a unique platform where African researchers, policymakers and stakeholders can share perspectives and research findings in public health. They will do so while ushering in a new era of strengthened scientific collaboration and innovation across the continent
Africa CDC is a specialised technical institution of the African Union (AU) established to support public health initiatives of member States and strengthen the capacity of their public health institutions to detect, prevent, control and respond quickly and effectively to disease threats.

It must be said that the inaugural CPHIA was postponed earlier this year because of COVID-19. Public health refers to the health of the population as a whole, especially as a subject of government regulation and support while CDC Foundation defines it as a science of protecting and improving the health of people and their communities. Even though Dr. Simon Zwane, the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Health, said on Friday they were not aware of the event, but organisers of the conference said they could still attend the event. “I hope we will receive an invitation anytime. As you put it, it looks like it’s going to be a big event, and we should be there as part of Africa,” said Dr. Zwane in an interview on Friday.

According to Africa CDC, COVID-19 pandemic was far from over in Africa. With seven million infections and almost 175 000 lives lost across the continent, the CDC said its impact had already been severe. Economic and social disruptions caused by COVID-19 have threatened even more lives and livelihoods, putting years of human development progress at risk of reversal. Over the course of three days, the centre said scientific tracks focusing on the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, health systems strengthening and learning from the COVID-19 response would be covered through keynote and panel presentations, plenaries and participatory sessions with a special focus on skill building for early career professionals.

State leaders to attend

Government leaders expected to address the conference include Cyril Ramaphosa, the President of South Africa and African Union (AU) Champion on COVID-19, Felix Antoine Tshisekedi Tshilombo, the President of the Democratic Republic of Congo, who is also the Chairperson of the AU and Paul Kagame, the President of Rwanda and AU Champion for Domestic Health Financing. Others to feature in the programme are Moussa Faki Mahamat, the Chairperson of the Commission of the AU, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Professor Agnes Binagwaho, the Co-Chair of CPHIA 2021 and Vice Chancellor and Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Global Health Equity. Professor Senait Fisseha, the Co-Chair of CPHIA 2021 and Director of Global Programmes at the Susan Thompson Buffett Foundation alongside Dr. John Nkengasong, the Director of Africa CDC, will also make presentations. 

  The three-day conference has seven sessions that include one on epidemiology of SARS-COV-2, virology, prevention and clinical management, vaccination in Africa: research capacity, advocacy, manufacturing and distribution, COVID-19 and equitable health system strengthening in Africa and the case for a new public health order in Africa.

There shall be sessions on assessing the response to COVID-19 in Africa to prepare for future health threats; digitisation, modelling and analytics to support an effective public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic and Agenda 2063 under the theme private sector, community and leadership approach in combating COVID-19 and other emerging diseases. While the African continent was predicted to be particularly vulnerable to COVID-19, the organisers said populations appeared to have thus far evaded widespread morbidity and mortality due to the virus.

It is said that such a track will assess how the pandemic has unfolded on the African continent, discuss possible biologic mechanisms that may have mitigated the impact of the disease, identify areas of particular need for future research in the African setting, and discuss the future of COVID-19 in Africa.
The conference programme further indicates that there shall be a presentation by Dr. Thomas Kariuki on the current state of Africa’s preparedness to tackle public health emergencies.

Dr Kariuki is Executive Director of the Science for Africa (SFA) Foundation. He previously served as the Director of Programmes for the Alliance for Accelerating Excellence in Science in Africa (AESA) and Director of a biomedical facility, the Institute of Primate Research / National Museums of Kenya where he established his infectious immunology research group.

It has been established that attendants would also have the privilege to learn about a study by Dr. Amadou Sall on Africa collaborative initiative to advance diagnostics and achieve equitable access to health. Dr. Sall is the Chief Executive Officer of Institute Pasteur de Dakar in Senegal and Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Arboviruses and Viral Hemorrhagic Fever. According to event organisers, the first CPHIA 2021 comes at a critical time on the continent and in the world as COVID-19 has strained health systems globally. With limited access to vaccines in Africa, it must be said that the pandemic has laid bare deep inequities in access to healthcare and scientific innovations.

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