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| Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, acting director of Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) speaks during an interview with The Korea Times in Seoul, Tuesday. Courtesy of Korea-Africa Foundation |
Top disease expert stresses bilateral collaboration
By Lee Hyo-jin
Partnerships between Korea and Africa in the healthcare sector will go beyond the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, as the two sides seek to bolster collaboration in responding to emerging diseases, said Ahmed Ogwell Ouma, acting director of Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), Tuesday.
During his four-day visit to Korea, he sat down for an interview with The Korea Times to talk about how the African and Korean health authorities can scale up cooperation in order to overcome the ongoing pandemic and be better prepared for future health crises.
"Our partnership with Korea started even before the pandemic. We were already working closely with the Korean International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) on hepatitis. And during the pandemic, the partnerships have expanded very rapidly," he said.
Through a series of meetings with officials at the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA), Ouma said the two sides have vowed to increase cooperation in disease surveillance, building capacity in laboratory diagnosis and improvement of emergency preparedness.
"We've also talked about around how we can cooperate in emerging diseases. The monkeypox is a good example, which is 'an old virus but a new disease,'" he said.
Ouma went on to say that Africa has seen over 10,500 cases of monkeypox since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and that it remains an endemic disease in some 10 countries on the continent.
The KDCA on Wednesday announced the first confirmed case of the monkeypox in Korea.
"We could collaborate in the diagnosis and vaccination. And in between, we can share our clinical management experience with Korea, so that it can also have appropriate exposure to the diagnosis without going to the lab," he said.
He also viewed that Korea and Africa could build partnerships in Africa CDC's New Public Health Order, which focuses on five key areas ― strengthening regional and national health institutions, local production of vaccines, investment in the public healthcare workforce, action-oriented partnership and enabling better use of domestic resources.
When asked about the COVID-19 situation in Africa, Ouma said although the pandemic has strained its healthcare and trade systems, he focused on some positive effects of the health crisis.
"The pandemic has confirmed the vision of putting African countries together. The member states have had to learn to work together in a strained environment amid lockdowns, while continental and national-level healthcare institutions were able to rapidly scale up their capacities," he said.
The continent's top disease expert stressed that the pandemic has generated interest for local manufacturing infrastructure of medical equipment and vaccines, an essential capacity in the endemic era where vaccines may still be needed.
"If the virus is circulating within the community, we would need regular shots of vaccines to prevent serious illnesses and hospitalization. Then, the demand (for vaccines) will be huge. Therefore, local manufacturing in each region is essential to keep stable supply of doses at a manageable cost," he said.
Although the current vaccine coverage in Africa stands at 18 percent, Ouma said through the Africa CDC's Saving Lives and Livelihoods initiative, which aims at swift procurement and distribution of the vaccines, the authorities will be able to reach the target of fully vaccinating 70 percent of the population by the end of this year.
