Funding gaps, weak health financing undermine Africa’s outbreak response – Africa CDC

The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) says funding gaps, weak health financing, and limited local vaccine manufacturing capacity are undermining Africa’s effective response to disease outbreaks.

Prof. Yap Boum II, Deputy Incident Manager for Mpox at the Africa CDC Incident Management Support Team (IMST), disclosed this on Friday during the weekly high-level regional press briefing.

He noted that the Mpox remains active in several countries across the continent.

Boum II stressed that although vaccines were increasingly available, many countries lacked the resources to deploy them.

According to him, logistical and operational funding challenges, particularly in island nations such as Comoros and Madagascar, have made vaccine delivery difficult.

“We now have vaccines, but in many settings, we do not have the funds to deliver them to the people who need them most,” he said.

He emphasised the urgent need for local vaccine manufacturing, noting that Africa would require an estimated 55 million doses of cholera vaccines to adequately control outbreaks across the continent.

He also expressed concern over the state of health financing in Africa, revealing that only seven countries had met the Abuja Declaration target of allocating at least 15 per cent of national budgets to health.

“Twenty-five years after the Abuja Declaration, most African countries are still underfunding health, and this weakens outbreak preparedness and response,” he said.

He said the agency was promoting pooled procurement mechanisms and stronger pandemic preparedness systems to reduce costs and protect countries from global supply shocks during health emergencies.

He urged African governments and partners to prioritise sustainable health financing and investments in local manufacturing to safeguard the continent’s health security.