Corona Virus Pandemic Costs The World $11trn- Afreximbank Boss

The President of the bank, Prof. Benedict Oramah disclosed this at the ongoing first virtual International Conference on Public Health in Africa (CPHIA 2021) on Thursday.

The CPHIA 2021attracted 10,000 participants from 140 countries around the world.

Oramah noted that the cost of combatting pandemics had always been very high, both in loss of lives and the economy.

He explained that it was time for the African continent to be strategic when dealing with pandemics as some countries struggled financially.

Also, the Executive Director of the Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (RHI) of the University Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa,
Prof Helen Rees, said the Omicron variant spread more easily than others, saying that was why many countries had high numbers.

She said: “It’s not just the virus. This is what’s killing people: It’s years of living with health conditions that haven’t been properly managed.”

Rees noted that the COVID-19 vaccine still worked and encouraged people to get vaccinated to protect themselves against the Omicron variant even though it was not as severe as other variants.

She added:”The Ebola vaccine has been a success story because of community engagement and the continent should study that because it was incredible.

“We must communicate amongst each other. The continent must not repeat misinformation in the health sector.

“Give people the factual information and also address legitimate questions by people.”

In his presentation on “Institutional Capacity Strengthening for Health Research and Development in Africa,” Dr. Michael Makanga, a clinician-scientist, said COVID-19 had shown that the continent needed to invest in research information systems and strong collaboration.

He said there was a need to continue to grow strategic partnerships with both public and private sectors to draw in money, but also expertise and bi-directional exchange.

Makanga said that building institutional research capacity on the continent could create incentives to produce high-quality research, adding that clinical trial sites needed to be supported financially and in terms of expertise by both the public and private sectors.