Africa’s foremost public health agency, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has a new director general. He tells Paul Adepoju about his ambitious goals for the continent, despite the controversy that delayed his appointment
When the covid pandemic began in 2020, Jean Kaseya was in Italy witnessing how the country became overwhelmed—despite its financial and human resources and healthcare capacity. If a European giant could be overburdened, what would happen to Africa?
His worst fears were realised when nationalism became the hallmark of vaccine distribution. It seemed to be the fate of the continent—not just for covid but for future epidemics, pandemics, and other health emergencies.
While Africa was spared the full brunt of covid-19, Kaseya is concerned that in their current state, health systems of countries on the continent may not be resilient enough to withstand the full impacts of similar emergencies.
As the new director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) it is now his job to shape the resilience of the continent’s health systems. “I’m worried about our capacity. We have to make sure that we have sufficient skilled health workers, appropriate funding for our health systems, and initiatives for local manufacturing of vaccines, diagnostics, and therapeutics,” he tells The BMJ .
Box 1 ### Biography
Jean Kaseya, a primary care physician by training, has over two decades of experience in public health, working in both international institutions and with his home government in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
Starting his career at Kinshasa General Hospital, Kaseya rose through the ranks to become chief of the health zone of Kahemba in the province of Bandundu in 1998. From there, he went on to become the DRC Ministry of Public Health’s chief of immunisation, a role in which he also assisted the expanded …