Exclusive Interview with Dr. Mazyanga Lucy Mazaba: Strengthening Health Systems in Africa

By Ange de la Victoire DUSABEMUNGU

This week, at the sideline of the inaugural International Health Ministerial Summit in Kigali, TOP AFRICA NEWS had the opportunity to sit down with Dr. Mazyanga Lucy Mazaba, Regional Director for the Africa CDC, Eastern Africa region. In this exclusive interview, Dr. Mazaba shared insights on the key initiatives that Africa CDC is currently working on to strengthen health systems in Africa, the role of digital health and innovation in improving healthcare delivery in the African region, challenges faced by African countries in terms of access to medicines, and how Africa CDC is addressing these issues. Additionally, Dr. Mazaba discussed the importance of partnerships between governments, industry influencers, and global leaders in healthcare to advance medical systems in Africa, as well as the specific goals and outcomes that Africa CDC hopes to achieve through participation in this meeting. Join us as we delve into the future of healthcare in Africa with Dr. Mazaba.

Can you share with us some of the key initiatives that Africa CDC is currently working on to strengthen health systems in Africa?

The Africa CDC has embarked on quite a number of initiatives to support member states in strengthening their capacities in securing their public health and we are leaning on what we call the new public health order, which has five pillars, specifically to see how we can move the agenda in strengthening the health systems towards public health security.

One of them is to have a strengthened institution with the capacity to detect, diagnose, and respond to public health emergencies and these are called national public health institutes. We are at different levels in the member states and so far, we have about 23 countries on the continent that have moved that agenda but not all of them are operational. However, some of the governments have a department responsible with the same mandate within the Ministry of Health as a department rather than a standalone institution.

The most important thing is that we want to push an agenda of having an entity or a group of people who are specifically mandated to push that agenda. We are also talking about issues of diagnostic capacities. We know that sometimes we have different diseases or events, health events happening and we’re not sure what it is. By the time we’re beginning to understand what it is, the disease has already spread. So we’re also trying to move an agenda on pushing capacities in laboratory diagnostics and even beyond just routine diagnostics.

We’re also looking at things like genomic sequencing as an important agenda in surveillance, understanding the detail of that germ or organism that is causing the disease through sequencing. Then we are also looking at issues of local manufacturing. We have learned, I think, through the COVID-19 that there’s been gaps in our capacities because we get the vaccines late, or we get the diagnostic tools late, and so on and so forth.

 So the idea is to see how can we on the continent develop a strengthened capacity to be able to have our own reagents, our own vaccines, so that we can quickly move towards that.

Therefore, the Africa CDC is moving an agenda towards vaccine manufacturing and manufacturing of other medical consumables.

How do you see the role of digital health and innovation in improving healthcare delivery in the African region?

When I was younger in secondary school, or even in my first year at university, to be able to communicate to somebody, we all shared one, when I was at university, there was one phone booth, and we would all rush to that. We would queue up to use that phone booth to send messages and so on, or you could send a telegram or a fax, which was just crazy, or a letter, which would take so long. But today, it would take me one second to send a greeting to my mom, who is far away from where I am right now. And that is all due to digitalization, or improvements, innovations around digitalization. So, the healthcare systems can leverage on these innovations to improve our information management. Remember, I mentioned earlier on that sometimes, by the time we are recognizing there’s a problem, it’s rather late. But if you have a system that is able to showcase, maybe through a dashboard, and give you an alert quickly that there’s something happening in that area, you can quickly respond. With digitization, you may not even have to go there physically, but you can just maybe make a call or send, or everybody has access to that dashboard and they’re able to see that there’s an issue and we need to respond accordingly. Therefore, digitization is definitely a good initiative for us to enforce in the health sector.

What are some of the major challenges that Africa countries, in terms of access to medicines, and how is Africa CDC addressing these issues?

About 70% of the medicines that we use on the continent are imported and there are so many factors that you need to deal with in terms of importation. First of all, the cost is probably higher. Sometimes, like we saw in the COVID-19, the planes stopped moving, there were very few. So by the time you are getting your stuff, it’s quite late. And so those are posing challenges. Sometimes, even by the time new innovations are coming in, new therapeutics, by the time that information comes to us, we’d have still been using the old medicines. So, that’s why we are pushing the agenda on local manufacturing. If we’re able to do our research and development here and manufacture our own vaccines, at least most of our own vaccines and therapeutics, then it will ensure that we have access to our medicines and vaccines in good time and also making sure that what we have is actually of standard and of the time.

How can partnership between governments, industry influencers, and global leaders in healthcare help to advance medical systems in Africa?

You know, there is that saying, if you want to walk far, walk alone. If you want to walk far, walk with others. Therefore, it is the same thing. In the health sector, as is in other sectors, you can’t work alone. There’s issues of financing, there’s issues of education, there’s issues of research. So it’s not really just managing the patient, how to treat the patient and so on and so forth. It’s about the holistic approach. And to have that holistic approach, you need all the partners on board.

The private sector has played a key and critical role in health financing, in research and development. So they need to be on board. The public sector are the drivers, are the decision makers in any government system. Therefore, of course, they have to lead the situation. However, we also have the global partners who have more experience, who have more access to resources, whom we also need to put on board. So partnerships and collaboration remain key. But of course, all this must be done in a coordinated fashion. Therefore, somebody has to be in the coordination centrally of this whole system.

What are some of the specific goals or outcomes that you hope to achieve through the participation in this meeting?

Well, first things first, I think after I gave that keynote speech today, already I have a number of people who’ve requested to have some bilateral discussions to further engage on some of the things that I pointed out in the meeting today. So I do believe that by the end of this conference, we’ll definitely have strengthened partnerships with others and hopefully we will have solutions that will improve our capacities in supporting the member states in safeguarding the public health security on the continent. If you see, there’s nobody standing alone at this conference. Everywhere there are conversations. And I believe that these conversations will bear fruit to good solutions for the African continent.

 The last question, how do you envision the future of healthcare in Africa? And what steps do you believe need to be taken to ensure a better tomorrow for the continent’s health system?

So one of the things that I’m seeing, and that’s exciting me, is that we have the will, be it at political level, be it at social level, be it at personal level. Everybody’s now talking about, let’s find a solution. And in my short term on this position as regional director and the engagements that I’ve had so far, everywhere I’ve been, everybody’s saying it’s time we took ownership. It’s time we became responsible over our own health affairs. So hearing that conversation is really exciting. And I think that it will take our continent to a different level. We’re seeing young people with so many innovative ideas, with so many innovative solutions coming on board. And so we need to listen to everybody and see what should we leverage on to enhance our capacities on the continent. But definitely the agenda 2063, there’s light in that tunnel.