The Covid-19 pandemic was one of 1 843 public health events recorded in Africa between 2001 and 2022, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The continent has seen a 63% increase in the number of zoonotic outbreaks in the decade from 2012 to 2022, compared to 2001 to 2011, indicating the need for greater pandemic preparedness. But what have we learnt since Covid-19 ravaged the continent, and claimed 970 lives in Africa every day in 2021 alone?
Dr Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO’s regional director for Africa, says lessons learnt about ramping up vaccine production should assist in fighting the more than 130 000 cholera cases recorded on the continent since 2022. Cholera outbreaks may become more frequent as severe weather events intensify – for example, tropical cyclone Freddy worsened Malawi’s worst cholera epidemic in decades.
“Prevention is cheaper than the cost of treatment and building capacity within the healthcare system would allow for a more robust and cost-effective response.”
Aside from the need for climate-resilient water infrastructure in Malawi, the development of effective cholera vaccines may play a big role in curbing outbreaks. Professor Jan Holmgren, who has developed the world’s first internationally licensed oral cholera vaccine, says the Global Task Force on Cholera Control has set out to reduce deaths by 90% and eliminate the disease in up to 20 countries by 2030.
Demand for vaccines usually outstrips supply, therefore greater investment is needed in production. The widespread production of effective vaccines may be the cornerstone of pandemic preparedness in the future – however, vaccine hesitancy, the uneven distribution of vaccines and underfunded public health systems across Africa present a challenge.
Investing in vaccine education is important, as is investing in primary healthcare systems (including community healthcare workers) and scaling up public-private partnerships that can intervene rapidly during outbreaks.
“Demand for vaccines usually outstrips supply, therefore greater investment is needed in production. ”
The public and private sectors collaborated effectively during the Covid-19 pandemic, but companies should consider going beyond their role as donor and actively investing in three areas in anticipation of future pandemics: response, preparedness and public health.
Prevention is cheaper than the cost of treatment and building capacity within the healthcare system would allow for a more robust and cost-effective response. The private sector should consider strengthening public health surveillance, since companies are often well placed to recognise a disease outbreak before the public sector.
It should also factor outbreaks into business continuity plans and risk management planning. Because outbreaks are no longer low-probability events, it makes sense to establish pandemic-specific policies and procedures, according to Ernst & Young’s (EY) article on the topic, ‘Covid-19 and pandemic planning: How companies should respond’.
Read more about disaster relief:
- Read the Overview of CSI spend on disaster relief in 2023.
- Read the 2022 research findings: Overview of CSI spend on disaster relief 2022.
- Explore more about the business response to Covid-19.
Source: The original version of this article was published in the Trialogue Business in Society Handbook 2023 (26th edition).
