To equip course participants with the knowledge of Africa’s expertise in prevention, detection and response to infectious disease outbreaks

The World Health Organization’s “Weekly Bulletin on Outbreaks and Other Emergencies” for Week 17: 18 – 24 April 2022 shows that sub-Saharan African countries are experiencing 133 infectious disease outbreaks and 19 humanitarian crises. Of note are the following, Ebola Virus Disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, floods in South Africa, COVID-19 across the WHO African region and Measles in Liberia. 

Lessons from the African Union’s response to Ebola in West Africa led to the establishment of the African centres for Disease Control. In turn, the Africa CDC has mounted an exemplary coordinated response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  This has been lauded by Dr Adhanom Ghebreyesus Tedros, the Director-General of the World Health Organization.

Objectives of the course

·         To show that Africa experiences several infectious outbreaks and manages to keep them at bay despite lean resources,    

·      To equip course participants with the knowledge of Africa’s expertise in prevention, detection, and response to infectious disease outbreaks,

·         To highlight the importance of African governments to budget for epidemic preparedness and response 4.

·         To highlight the unprecedented support of the private sector in Africa’s response to COVID-19 and how that could be leveraged for other infectious diseases, 

·         To outline gaps in prevention, detection, and response to infectious disease outbreaks across Africa and make appropriate recommendations. 

Course Description

The course facilitator is offering a 90-minute course on Africa’s expertise to prevent, detect and respond to infectious disease outbreaks.

 Who is the course for?

Global health workers, private-sector workers, health programme managers, staff of ministries of health of African Union member states, staff of international NGOs, national NGOs, philanthropic foundations, bilateral, multilateral organisations etc and anyone interested in learning about the infectious disease space across Africa.

 About the Course Facilitator

Dr Ifeanyi M. Nsofor is a public health physician and a leading voice in global health equity, health security, universal health coverage and health research. He is a mental health advocate, migrant's rights advocate, storyteller, and writer. He is the Senior Vice President for Africa at Human Health Education and Research Foundation. He is the Health Technical Expert and Strategy Consultant to Upswell, providing daily strategic project guidance, leading the firm’s Nigerian public relations, and facilitating weekly coalition meetings. Ifeanyi has led more than 30 research projects across Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea, Ghana and Nigeria, and was a co-lead of the evaluation of the African Union intervention for the Ebola Outbreak in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Dr Nsofor received his medical degree from Nnamdi Azikiwe University Medical School and obtained his Master's in Community Health at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine as a Ford Foundation International Fellow. Since graduating as a medical doctor, Dr Nsofor has worked in government, international non-profit organisations, indigenous non-profit health organisations and the private health sector. Ifeanyi has authored and co-authored more than 102 Op-Eds. He is also among the top 100 most influential Africans of 2020 by NewAfrican magazine. Ifeanyi was a coronavirus top 100 healthcare professional globally in 2020 by Onalytica. He is a two-time TEDx speaker and has given a MOTH Talk. Ifeanyi has been interviewed by major news outlets including Al Jazeera, BBC, Channel News Asia, CCTV, Forbes, The Lancet and more. He is a Senior New Voices Fellow at the Aspen Institute, a Senior Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity at George Washington University and an Innovation Fellow At Pandemic Tech. Dr Nsofor was Director of Policy and Advocacy at Nigeria Health Watch and led the organisation’s advocacy interventions. In this capacity, he was the Director of the Prevent Epidemics in Nigeria (#PreventEpidemicsNaija) project, which was funded by Resolve to Save Lives. The project contributed to the increase of the budget of the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) by 75% by the federal government of Nigeria. Ifeanyi also served as CEO of EpiAFRIC, a health consultancy service which works on public health emergencies. He is a two-time TEDx speaker. Ifeanyi is married to Omegle. They have two daughters - Yagazie and Chimamanda and a dog Coco. To read all Ifeanyi’s opinion pieces, please visit www.ifeanyinsofor.com/opinion-pieces