By Iyemah David
Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has raised alarm over potentially dangerous shortages of essential medical supplies.
This is due to rising input and transport costs linked to the ongoing Middle East crisis.
Director-General of Africa CDC, Dr Jean Kaseya, raised the alarm on Thursday during the weekly high-level regional press briefing.
He said that the cost of key materials, such as polyester used in mosquito nets, had surged by up to 40 per cent.
Dr Kaseya said that shipping expenses had spiked due to new war taxes and fuel surcharges reaching 4,000 dollar per container.
According to him, delays in freight and disruptions in supply chains could threaten the timely delivery of medicines, vaccines, and other health products.
Kaseya said that Africa’s heavy reliance on imports from China and India increased the continent’s vulnerability.
“Vulnerability ranges from rising costs to lives at stake, price hikes and shortages risk evolving into a public health crisis,” he said.
He also emphasised Africa CDC’s Africa Health Security and Sovereignty (AHSS) Agenda.
The AHSS agenda promotes stronger leadership, coordinated pandemic preparedness, sustainable domestic health financing, digital transformation of health systems, and local manufacturing of health products.
Dr Kaseya pointed to the Democratic Republic of Congo as a model, showing how political commitment and innovative financing, such as import levies and mandatory insurance, can reduce donor dependence and expand domestic health coverage.
“Health financing alone is only half the battle; stewardship, efficiency, and integrated systems are equally critical,” he stressed.
He urged African nations to scale and sustain reforms that strengthen domestic ownership of health priorities, improve efficiency, and reduce fragmentation, ensuring that Africa can safeguard its health security despite global supply shocks.
The Africa CDC D-G said that achieving health sovereignty would require a combination of political will, innovative financing, and structural reforms to make Africa’s health systems resilient in the face of global crises.
