- Dr Mhlengi V Ncube
Globalisation has brought new economic opportunities and exposed the world to different cultures and perspectives of life. Africa is a major global tourist destination seeing millions of people from other continents come to view our spectacular bio and cultural diversity. Regionally, business and leisure travel has grown as Africans from different countries identify markets for trade and aspire to see more of the motherland. This has resulted in several international and regional trade agreements, both unionised and bilateral agreements. While movement between countries and across continents moves people and businesses, diseases, especially infectious diseases, also move.
In 2008, the evacuation of a critically ill patient from Lusaka,Zambia to Johannesburg, South Africa, resulted in a limited outbreak of what became known as the Lujo virus. The medical teams in South Africa stopped the Lujo outbreak in less than a month. However, four of the five patients died. The rapid discovery of the causative agent, epidemiological linkage, and clinical mastery to timeously determine the correct treatment for the only survivor's hemorrhagic fever resulting from the Lujo virus were important in limiting the spread of the disease. South Africa had managed to stop a crisis that could have grown as big as the Zika virus in the Americas or even the recent COVID-19 pandemic.
The ability to stop a major disease outbreak is not unique to South Africa. Guinea is one of the countries that bore the brunt of the deadly Ebola. Over 11 000 people in Guinea died of the disease. With the assistance of other global partners, the government of Guinea fought a tireless battle to control the Ebola pandemic. Many lessons on the detection and control of infectious disease emergencies. Just when Guinea felt they had conquered Ebola, the Marburg virus emerged. The first case of Marburg virus was detected in a small village health facility on the 25th of August 2021; on the 3rd of August 2021, Guinea declared a Marburg virus outbreak and led the response to the outbreak. On the 16th of September 2021, Guinea declared the end of the Marburg virus outbreak. The government of Guinea had successfully prevented the Marburg outbreak from growing into an all-out pandemic that could have potentially spread to the rest of the world through travel.
Global Health is not fully discussed without the mention of COVID-19. COVID-19 spread throughout the world like an uncontrolled wildfire. Within weeks of the WHO declaration of a global pandemic, COVID-19 had reached all continents and killed thousands of people. The first dominant variant of COVID-19 was the alpha-variant, responsible for the first wave of infections. As expected, after the relative control of the wave of infections, a second wave emerged that was driven by the deadlier beta variant. The world needed to know if the antibodies developed in those who had survived infection by the alpha COVID-19 variant could protect them from infection by the beta variant. To get this information, scientists worldwide unsuccessfully tried to grow the beta variant in monkey cells the same way they had done for the alpha variant. The antibody tests also needed to be done on monkey cells. The KwaZulu-Natal-born Sandile Cele resolved this challenge at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban. Cele's innovative solution was to grow the beta variant in human cells and then use the infected cells to infect monkey cells. Cele had solved a global challenge and opened the door into the elusive world of how antibodies worked against the beta COVID-19 variant and other variants to follow. His work contributed immensely to evaluating the effectiveness of different vaccines against the different COVID-19 variants. The omicron variant was later first described by scientists from Botswana, giving the world a chance to understand yet another wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Whether through the work of Africans in the diaspora or those working in African institutions, Africa continues to contribute to conquering diseases on a local and global scale.
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