LUSAKA, Zambia
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention Africa (Africa CDC) said on Thursday that a US exit from the World Health Organization (WHO) jeopardizes Africa’s public health welfare.
Ngashi Ngongo, a senior official at Africa CDC, said the need for Africa to seek innovative indigenous solutions for public health financing was now urgent and the matter will be raised with heads of state at a meeting scheduled in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia next month.
“We know the role that the WHO has played on the continent to really improve the delivery of public healthcare programs in Africa. And yes the reduction of US funding is definitely going to affect the response. But again it’s time for African member states to rethink financing for public health,” Ngongo said in response to questions during a weekly virtual news briefing.
Upon taking office on Monday, Trump signed an executive order formalizing the US withdrawal from the UN health agency, citing the WHO’s “mismanagement” of the COVID-19 pandemic and other global health crises a well as its “failure” to implement urgent reforms and a “lack” of undue political influence from member states.
There are also fears that Trump can cut or withdraw support to the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), an outreach fund most Africans living with HIV/AIDS on the continent.
“That is why Africa CDC has for the last two years been pushing African states to develop modes of accelerating public health financing locally so that there is no disruption in public health financing,” Ngongo added.
Hours after Trump signed the order, the WHO said it regretted the president’s announcement. “We hope the United States will reconsider,” said the UN health agency’s spokesperson, Tarik Jasarevic.
The US joined WHO in 1948 after a joint resolution was passed by both chambers of Congress, which requires the country to provide one year’s notice to leave the organization.
