Africans Can Solve the Disease that Haunts Us — Here’s How

It is critical that African scientists tackle African problems, and the reasons extend beyond access. Credit: Jeffrey Moyo/IPS. By Khisi MdluliBOSTON, US, Mar 15 2024 (IPS) I was born in Brakpan, Johannesburg, South Africa, and grew up in eSwatini (known then as Swaziland). People in these two countries share one predominant fear: unemployment. Other worries in these countries and others in the region include unwanted pregnancies, low income and food safety. The diseases that are dreaded the most are cancer and diabetes. Feared infectious diseases include HIV-AIDS, COVID and cholera. Even though South Africa and eSwatini are among the more than two dozen African countries with a high burden of either tuberculosis (TB), drug-resistant TB or HIV/TB co-infections, TB is not feared in the same way, even though it is the disease that haunts my people the most. More than 90% of current funding for TB R&D currently comes from North America and Europe, and most of those funds stay in the high-income countries, and train and develop and indeed employ scientists in the high-income countries. Of the high-burden countries, only India has an investment in the field large enough to be noted — at 1.9% of the total global funding So many are affected on the African continent by TB, which hits the young and vibrant the hardest in our region and in the world. Eswatini joins the seven most populous sub-Saharan African countries — Ethiopia, DR Congo, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda and...
Source: IPS Inter Press Service - Health - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Authors: Tags: Africa Development & Aid Headlines Health Poverty & SDGs Source Type: news