- Stellenbosch University hosted the first African Nature Forum on Health Equity, bringing together global experts.
- Discussions focused on building resilient health systems across Africa and strengthening community involvement in health care.
- The event emphasised partnerships and highlighted innovative approaches for equitable health outcomes.
Researchers from across the globe gathered at Stellenbosch University’s Biomedical Research Institute, located at the Tygerberg Campus in Parow, last week for a two-day forum.
The Nature Forum on Health Equity and the Nature Awards for Inclusive Health Research took place on Wednesday 23 October and Thursday 24 October. This was also the first time the forum was held in Africa.
This two-day event brought together leading health equity and inclusive health researchers to discuss how to improve health outcomes for all of society. Research and discussions centred on how community involvement builds resilient health systems, and how to invest in people and technologies to deliver health equity in Africa.
Ben Johnson, senior editor of Nature Medicine, was the moderator of the event. “I want today to be about hope, optimism and successes and am delighted to be here. I hope that these discussions will lead to partnerships and innovation,” Johnson said in his opening remarks. One of the first speakers on Wednesday was Dr Raji Tajudeen, acting deputy director general at the Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC.) Tajudeen said he is proud to be part of the discussion and thanked the forum for inviting the Africa CDC to be part of it. Tajudeen himself could not attend the forum in person, and had sent a recorded video.
Community involvement
His presentation was titled “How community involvement is needed for a resilient health system”.
Tajudeen explained that a resilient health system meant a system that can respond and recover from a health crisis. He also spoke about what can be done to support health systems to deal with health shocks. Tajudeen further said a workforce that supports a resilient health system is critical. “Without it, we cannot deal with a crisis and without the workforce, there is no health care.”
Tajudeen added that political buy-in is also important to ensure that there is a robust health care system throughout Africa. “Every health outbreak begins in the community. Therefor it is important for us all to work together to ensure that we can continue to provide health care services during a disease outbreak.”
Tajudeen said as the CDC they want to put a primary health care system in place that can deal with outbreaks. “We want to see a resilient primary health care system in every member state in Africa,” he said.
According to him more than 70% of disease outbreaks across Africa had an animal origin.
Partnerships
Tajudeen’s call for partnership and collaboration was echoed by prof. Quarraisha Abdool Karim, an infectious diseases epidemiologist at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, who spoke about “how to carry out equitable research partnerships in the global south”. She also shared information about Caprisa, a research consortium, improving HIV and TB treatment, and the recent journey through Covid-19.
In her presentation Abdool Karim highlighted that partnerships are based on the premise of mutual respect and trust, and that each partner has to make a contribution. Contributions initially may be unequal, but role-players must work towards equity. She also highlighted the importance of training and capacity building.
“We must work together. If we have learned anything from covid, its that we are all in this together.”
The Caprisa Consortium was established in 2002 under the NIH funded Comprehensive International Programme of Research on Aids (Cipra) by five partner institutions.
Karim is also the partner of South African researcher prof. Salim Abdool Karim. Prof. Kelly Chibale of the University of Cape Town (UCT) was the last speaker for the day. Chibale spoke on “African drug discovery as a tool for health equity”. In his presentation he said that there exists a variability why people respond to medicine differently, adding that the volume of clinical trials undertaken in Africa are “very low”.
He said often when people decide to take part in clinical trials, it is at a later stage of their infection. “And when an innovative medicine is discovered in the global north, it can take years for that medicine to reach Africa.”
Chibale also said there is limited data available of Africans in drug discovery. “Everybody knows what the reason is, but what are we doing to resolve this as to why people respond differently to medicine?” he asked.
Chibale said as researchers they must build drug discovery capabilities across the African continent. “Unless we do that, we will not get local solutions to global problems,” said Chibale.
On Thursday UCT announced that Chibale, founder and director of H3D, UCT’s drug discovery and development centre based in the department of chemistry and institute of infectious disease and molecular medicine, was elected to the United States National Academy of Medicine.
Sibusiso Moyo, deputy vice-chancellor: research, innovation, and postgraduate studies at Stellenbosch University, congratulated and thanked the faculty members who had made the forum possible, who organised the event, and made sure that they were there on Wednesday.
The event was followed by a ceremony for the?Inclusive Health Research Awards, which celebrates leading researchers who have made significant advances in diverse, patient-centric, and community-inclusive practices. Moyo also congratulated all the award-winners.
