By Wu Siya

 

BEIJING, July. 17 (China Economic Net) – "For decades, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has helped us a lot. A broad range of Chinese medical experts have made great efforts, not only in Ethiopia, but also in Africa under the framework of South-South cooperation,"Dereje Duguma Gemeda, Health Minister of Ethiopia, noted at the 3rd Conference of Global Health Forum (GHF) of Boao Forum for Asia. 

 

“Since 2015, China has established cooperative relationships with 46 hospitals in Africa and trained more than 100,000 medical personnel for the region, but we are still far from doing enough” echoed another guest Gan Ge, Director of the WHO Collaborating Center for Health System Strengthening.

 

“When it comes to the overall high fragility of Africa’s health system, I would like to cite a set of specific data: Africa accounts for 18% of the world’s population, but the disease burden is as high as 25%; from the perspective of human resources, only 3% of the world’s health workers are serving here, even worse, financial resources are a negligible 1%,” Gan precisely pointed out, dedicating to arouse high attention to the health situation in Africa.

 

 

Addressing at the forum, professionals spoke about the huge health challenges and opportunities currently facing the African continent.

 

“In the past few years, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the overall allocation of resources in Africa’s health system. Meanwhile, climate change has further exacerbated some infectious diseases-malaria and tropical diseases such as cholera and dengue fever. Faced with such severe challenges, to my way of thinking, several measures are indispensable.” Dereje Duguma Gemeda analyzed. 

 

“Strengthening capacity building in Africa’s overall health sector is a top priority. To facilitate sustainable development, we cannot do without international cooperation, as well as multilateral and bilateral communication. Taking Ethiopia as an example, South-South and regional cooperation within Africa, is crucial to us. More diversified financing models within the country are also pragmatic measures to make progress in the health industry.”

 

 

In recent years, the global health gap has continued to widen, which has seriously hindered the realization of the global SDGs and the “triple billion” goals. Regard this, Dr Gan specifically listed three practical suggestions. “First, investment in health human resources must take the top spot. Second, increase support for the local research and production of medical products in Africa, especially for the key materials, such as vaccine and testing reagents. Finally, promote the digital transformation of the health system, to use modern information means to better respond to health challenges.”

 

 

“Indeed, more than 95% of medicines in Africa now rely on imports, which is by no means a normal phenomenon,” Amakobe Sande, the UNICEF Representative to China, agreed with Gan. 

 

“Africa must have the ability to produce our own medicines, medical devices, vaccines and other health products, at least the most basic ones, such as mosquito nets. There are also other things such as zinc tablets and calcium tablets, which could be built through partnerships, not only China but also the globe,” Sande added.