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African officials must step up financing to respond and develop vaccines for the Ebola outbreak in Congo and Uganda, the continent’s top health agency said on Friday, warning that the continent cannot continue to rely on foreign partners for its health needs.
The outbreak has claimed more than 200 lives out of 894 confirmed cases since May 15, with up to 35,000 contacts, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said. The number of cases is believed to be higher because the outbreak was confirmed weeks late.
Africa CDC Director-General Dr. Jean Kaseya told The Associated Press in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, that the current outbreak — the worst ever at this stage — is yet another reminder for Africa to invest more in its health sector to reduce its reliance on foreign partners.
“If this outbreak was in Europe, the United States or other continents, they would already have developed a vaccine and medicine,” Kaseya said.
“We don’t want to be a continent begging every day. We want to be a continent of people who know what they are doing and who are respected because they are doing the right thing,” he added.
Response efforts have been challenged by the lack of approved vaccines or treatments for the Bundibugyo virus. The more common Zaire virus, for which there is a vaccine, was responsible for most of Congo’s past 16 outbreaks of the disease.
At the epicenter in Congo’s eastern Ituri province where burials have become routine, including of babies. Health workers labor with little rest as they battle attacks from angry residents and widespread skepticism.
Vaccines have long been a problem for African countries
Consecutive health shocks, including COVID-19, have triggered efforts to boost local vaccine manufacturing in Africa, although not much has been achieved yet.
The continent, whose population is projected to reach 2.5 billion by 2050, produces less than 1% of its vaccine needs and 3% of medicine that is brought in from abroad, making millions of people vulnerable to epidemics.
While efforts are in place to speed up the development of vaccines and diagnostics, Kaseya said he is unsure a vaccine will be available by the end of the year.
The Africa CDC head added that the peak of the Ebola outbreak is still to come because of slow progress in identifying and monitoring contacts.
Officials are yet to identify the outbreak’s patient zero and still need to trace more than 35,000 people who have come in contact with infected individuals, he added.
“This is why we are accelerating our fundraising to put on the ground so many teams to look for any contact, direct or indirect, and to start following them,” Kaseya said.
As part of the plan to push African states to financially support the agency’s efforts, Kaseya said South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa is due to fly to Ituri Province in Congo and to Uganda next week in support of the mobilization of funds.
A newly established African Epidemic Fund has received pledges totaling about $80 million from African governments, while a broader donor conference held this week generated pledges of about $910 million, he said.
“We need to take care of ourselves,” Kaseya said. “We need to say, ‘It’s time for us to really think strongly about how we can manufacture medicines and vaccines to meet our own needs.'”
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Musambi reported from Nairobi, Kenya. AP writer Chinedu Asadu in Abuja, Nigeria contributed.
