Infectious Diseases Posing Threat to Africa, Says ACDC

Addis Ababa March 13/2019 Africa has been facing a serious threat posed by emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (ACDC) said.

ACDC Director John Nkengasong told ENA that those infectious diseases are emerging in the African continent at a rate that has not been seen before.

Though African Heads of State and Government issued a Declaration on 3rd July 2017 to combat the infectious diseases and commit to the implementation of International Health Regulations (IHR), disease threats are still being driven by many factors, he added.

According to him, weak health systems, huge population growth expected to reach 2.5 billion by 2050, rapid urbanization, expansive mobility of people across and beyond the continent, terrorism, wars and  climate change fueled by global warming are among the factors that have been contributing to the emergence of the infectious diseases.

Over the past 20 years, the number of annual African outbreaks has nearly tripled that Ebola, Zika, cholera, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and various strains of the influenza virus affect tens of millions of people, Nkengasong underscored.

“For the last 20 years we have not made any new antimicrobial resistance to detect the diseases which need doing something urgently. Africa does not have the right antibiotics due to the resistance of infectious diseases, and as we speak today we have close to 100 causes of Ebola virus alone in the Democratic Republic of Congo.”

The director stated that ACDC is taking measures to tackle the infectious diseases by helping each member state have their own national public health institutes, putting in place early warning systems, encouraging domestic investment on health sectors and mobilizing resources collectively.

Dean of Public Health School at Harvard, Michelle A. Williams said infections like gonorrhea, tuberculosis, and food borne diseases are becoming harder, and sometimes impossible, to treat as antibiotics become less effective against the bacteria.

Acknowledging the essential need for a multilateral and multi-sectoral approach to strengthen both the global capacity and national capacity to prevent, detect, and respond to infectious disease threats, she urged governments in Africa and around the globe to demonstrate willingness to mitigate the devastating effects of Ebola and highly infectious diseases.

Public health experts, who came from across the globe to attend the three-day international conference, are discussing the increasing threats posed by emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases here in Addis Ababa.