Harnessing the potential of African youth for transforming health research in Africa.

Africa faces a significant burden of infectious diseases, including Malaria and HIV/AIDS, along with an increasing prevalence of non-infectious diseases such as diabetes and cancer. This dual health challenge is amplified by socioeconomic difficulties, restricted access to healthcare, and lifestyle changes, thus present unique scientific needs. Effectively addressing these issues requires a skilled scientific workforce adept in comprehensive healthcare strategies. This analysis explores the critical landscape of health research in Africa, emphasizing the unique opportunity presented by the continent's youthful population, projected to reach almost 1 billion by 2050. The youth's innovative potential and fresh perspectives offer a chance to overcome development barriers in health research. Nevertheless, challenges such as under-resourced education, limited research training, inadequate mentorship, and funding difficulties persist. This paper urgently calls upon African leaders, international partners, and stakeholders to prioritize health research, mobilize funding, forge strategic partnerships, and empower the youth as essential steps to capitalize on the continent's dynamic youth for breakthrough health outcomes. Such investments are vital not just for health but for the overall economic, social, and strategic growth of the continent. Through shared responsibility and a united effort, the potential of African youth can be harnessed, leading to transformative research, improved health outcomes, and a prosperous future. This perspective represents the collective voice of passionate young researchers and advocates across Africa, calling for a new era of health research on the continent.

Strengthening Africa's capacity for vaccine research: Needs and challenges.

Vaccine development and production harbinger the control and eradication of infectious diseases. Vaccination played a huge role in the curtailment of disease outbreaks like smallpox and polio, especially in Africa. Despite the high demand for several vaccines in Africa due to the highly infectious disease burden, the continent still lacks adequate capacity for vaccine research and development. This paper aims to discuss the need and challenges of Africa to strengthen its capacity for vaccine research and development and also highlight practical recommendations. Some of the needs for Africa to prioritize vaccine research and development include; improving quality of life and well-being, cost-effectiveness, independent preparedness and response to local outbreaks, and increased access to funding. Challenges associated with vaccine research and development include the cost of the investment, risk of failure; poor ethical framework and legislation; lack of adequate funding; lack of political will & support; and poor surveillance system. Strategies to create sufficient research funds, an efficient surveillance system, and a legislative framework are clearly described. In conclusion, strengthening vaccine research capacity in Africa requires the political goodwill of African governments and strategic partnerships with international organizations and institutes. The challenges facing this development and possible solutions have been highlighted in this article.

Exploring Challenges to COVID-19 Vaccination in the Darfur Region of Sudan.

The current COVID-19 pandemic has affected the ability of health systems to provide essential services globally. The Darfur region, located in the western part of Sudan, has been largely devastated by the war that began in 2003 and has been drawing considerable attention from the international community. The war, which erupted as a result of environmental, political, and economic factors, has led to tragic outcomes. Collapsing health-care infrastructures, health workforce shortages, lack of storage facilities for medicines and medical products, and inadequate access to health services are some of the effects of the war. After Sudan received the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine through the COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access facility, significant challenges have been implicated in the delivery, storage, and use of the vaccine in the Darfur region. Lack of vaccine storage and transportation facilities, vaccination hesitancy, inequity in the distribution to health facilities, and shortage of health-care professionals resulting from insecurity and instability have added an extra layer of burden on local authorities and their ability to manage COVID-19 vaccinations in the region adequately. Addressing the impact of COVID-19 requires an effectively managed vaccination program. In the face of current challenges in Darfur, ensuring a fully vaccinated population might remain far-fetched and improbable if meaningful efforts are not put in place by all stakeholders and actors to address some of the challenges identified.

COVID-19 and progress towards achieving universal health coverage in Africa: A case of Nigeria.

Universal Health Coverage (UHC) 2030 is a global health target, and countries are making efforts to convert plans into tangible results. Nigeria, the most populated country in Africa, has made commitments towards UHC2030 target but is underperforming across many building blocks of health and progress has been slow. The arrival of COVID-19 poses additional pressure on the already feeble health system causing the government to direct focus towards containing the pandemic. However, existing gaps in health workforce density, weak primary health care infrastructure and inadequate budgetary allocation have resulted in inequitable access to basic healthcare services. This situation weighs most heavily on the poor who are mostly part of the informal economy thereby pushing people further into poverty. On the other hand, COVID-19 has provided valuable insights into Nigeria's current health system status which hopefully can be helpful in strengthening efforts towards building resilient health system and preparing the country towards future pandemic. The pandemic has highlighted the importance of essential health services and the need to strengthen primary healthcare system. It is, therefore, important that stakeholders in Nigeria and other African countries carry out situation analysis of the current health systems towards achieving UHC2030.

Increasing coverage of vaccination by pharmacists in Nigeria; an urgent need.

Pharmacists have a key role to play to advance public health through immunization. Pharmacists are well trained and play a huge role in vaccine production, research and development, safety, pharmacovigilance, storage, logistics and distribution. There is a need for a revised national policy and strategy in Nigeria on vaccination and immunization programs with the involvement of community pharmacies and/or pharmacists. This will help accelerate getting a wider vaccination access coverage, establishing a greater healthcare delivery workforce for societal benefits and demonstrate the full potential of the community pharmacies and the pharmacists' role in immunization programs.

COVID-19 Highlights the Need for Inclusive Responses to Public Health Emergencies in Africa.

COVID-19 is a global public health emergency affecting many countries around the world. Although African governments and other stakeholders are making efforts to contain the pandemic, the outbreak continues to impact human rights and exacerbates inequalities and disparities that are already in existence. The concept of inclusive health focuses on good health and well-being for everyone, and this entails health services that are equitable, affordable, and efficacious. Creating equitable access to mainstream health and healthcare services and ensuring inclusive health responses remain a means of addressing health inequities and disparities. In this article, we argue on the need for inclusive responses to public health emergencies in Africa using COVID-19 as a case example. Africa's response to public health emergencies needs to recognize that for every marginalized/vulnerable group, it is important to strategize to address their particular needs in such a way to surmount any barrier to the right to health. For Africa's public health response to be more inclusive, we therefore need to be more strategic and proactive in reaching out to specific groups and to identify and address their needs. Strengthening the healthcare systems of African countries through increased political will, increased funding to health care, collaboration and cooperation among stakeholders, and effective leadership remains essential in ensuring inclusive responses to health emergencies.

COVID-19 Misinformation and Infodemic in Rural Africa.

The world has witnessed rapid advancement and changes since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged in Wuhan, China. The significant changes experienced during these times remain unprecedented. The African continent has initiated significant responses to curb the spread of the pandemic. However, there is an increasing concern that rural Africa is facing serious challenges in their responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. This is due to the uncertainty if the populations are detached from or in synch with information on COVID-19. The findings reported here suggest that rural Africa is burdened with misinformation and infodemic regarding COVID-19 due to widespread misconceptions and anecdotal reports. It is, therefore, necessary to engage with community leaders to provide awareness campaigns in rural communities to ensure access to reliable information issued by local and international health authorities. It is pertinent to set up avenues that improve health literacy in communities in rural Africa as it is a major determinant of information assimilation.

Drug shortage crisis in Sudan in times of COVID-19.

Sudan is witnessing severe drugs, medicines, and medical supplies shortages, which present a major impediment to the provision of emergency healthcare services. Drug insecurity in Sudan is as a result of several accumulated factors, primarily due to worsening economic condition, inappropriate pricing policy, privatization of the pharmaceutical sector, poor manufacturing and weak weak weregulatory system. These could threaten patient health through replacement of highly efficacious medicines with less effective alternatives and by impacting the scheduling of urgent medical operations and procedures. Drug and medicine shortages are of catastrophic impact especially amid the current epidemic of COVID-19 where these are salient needs. Efforts should be quickly directed to ensure immediate access to pharmaceutical products and other essential health commodities. Effective policies on drug importation, production, pricing, and distribution should be established to avoid the consequences of an impending crisis.

Prevalence and Socio-economic Impacts of Malnutrition Among Children in Uganda.

Malnutrition is one of the common problems that afflict the poor in low- and middle-income countries like Uganda. The rate of decline of malnutrition in the country has been very slow for the last 15 years. This problem is of utmost concern in this era of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in which achieving the goals is imperative. The aim of our study was to review literature on the prevalence and socio-economic impacts of malnutrition among children under 5 in Uganda and provide recommendations to address identified gaps. This review assesses available evidences, including journal articles, country reports, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports, the United Nations International Children's Emergency Funds (UNICEF) reports, and other reports on issues pertaining to malnutrition among children in Uganda. Malnutrition, poverty, and chronic diseases are interconnected in such a way that each of the factors influences the presence and permanence of the other, resulting in a synergistic impact. The prevalence of acute and severe malnutrition among children under 5 is above the World Health Assembly target to reduce and maintain the prevalence under 5% by 2025. There are also limited studies on etiology of anemia as regards its prevalence in Uganda. The study presents a better understanding of the social and economic impact of child malnutrition on the families and the country's development. The study also strongly suggests that, for Uganda to achieve sustainable development goal 2, financial investments by the government are necessary to address nutrition in the early stages of an individual's life.

An analysis of pharmacy workforce capacity in Nigeria.

BACKGROUND: Pharmacists are critical for attaining the goal of universal health coverage and equitable access to essential health services, particularly in relation to access to medicines and medicines expertise. We describe an analysis of the pharmacy workforce in Nigeria from 2011 to 2016 in order to gain insight on capacity and to inform pharmacy workforce planning and policy development in the country. METHOD: The study was conducted using census data obtained from the Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) via a validated data collection tool. The statistical methods used for analysis were descriptive (frequencies, percentages, mean) and linear regression. Secondary data on population distribution per state was obtained from the Federal Bureau of Statistics and the National Population Commission (NPC) of Nigeria. RESULT: The data showed 21,892 registered pharmacists with only 59% (n = 12,807) in active professional practice. There are also more male (62%) compared to female pharmacists while 42% of the licensed workforce with known area of practice are in community practice followed by hospital pharmacy (11%). A rise in number of pharmacists (0.53-0.66) and new pharmacy graduates per year (0.062-0.083) per 10,000 population was observed over the five years analysed; however the overall density remains significantly low. Pharmacists' density also varied considerably between states (Median = 0.39; Min - Max: 0.05-4.3). Regionally, more than a third (~ 40%) of the licensed workforce and community pharmacies are situated in the South West region with fewer than 10% of the total in the North East and North West regions combined. A steady decline in number of pharmacists requesting a "letter of good standing" from PCN, a proxy measure of intent to migrate was also observed. CONCLUSION: The data indicate ongoing deficits in availability and supply of pharmacists in the country with widespread variance in distribution observed across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). The findings suggest that observed deficits are not solely related to out-migration and highlights the need for policies that will promote increased within-country availability, equitable distribution and retention, especially in the underserved regions of North East and North West of Nigeria.