A critical shortage of health workforce has worsened the recurrent public health emergencies on the continent, the head of the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has said.
According to an African CDC, sub-Saharan Africa accounts for approximately 24 per cent of the global disease burden.
It is home to only 3 per cent of the world’s health workers, said Jean Kaseya, director-general of the centre, at the May 6-8 Africa Health Workforce Investment Forum.
The Health Workforce Investment Forum is now underway in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia.
In 2023, the African continent recorded 166 disease outbreaks, a trend likely to persist in 2024, the Africa CDC said.
The statement said that the shortage of health workers in the continent is projected to reach about 6.1 million by 2030.
Kaseya urged African countries to join forces toward realising the 2017 African Union decision that called for rapid recruitment, training, and deployment of 2 million institutionalised community health workers by 2030.
Noting that investments in the health sector would yield substantial economic returns, Kaseya warned that the continent “will go nowhere if we do not have appropriate health workforce.”
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) is a public health agency of the African Union to support the public health initiatives of member states and strengthen the capacity of their health institutions to deal with disease threats.
The CDC ideas was proposed by the government of Ethiopia in 2013 during a TB/HIV special summit in Abuja, Nigeria. From 2013 to 2016, the modalities and statue of Africa CDC were developed and the specialized agency was officially launched in January 2017.
Xinhua
