LOME – West African laboratory scientists urged governments on Friday to improve their ability to detect disease outbreaks, warning that weakening health systems could leave the region vulnerable to another major epidemic.
The warning came in Togo’s capital, Lome, where scientists met this week to assess West Africa’s readiness for future outbreaks and examine the region’s continued reliance on vaccines supplied by Western countries.
The experts said governments must work together to strengthen disease surveillance and expand diagnostic capacity. They pointed to lessons from the Ebola and COVID-19 outbreaks that have challenged West Africa over the past decade.
From 2014 to 2016, an Ebola outbreak killed at least 11,000 people across West Africa, with the overwhelming majority of deaths recorded in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
“We need to anticipate these outbreaks,” said Kossi Kabo, head of the Association of Medical Biologists of Togo and a co-chair of the congress. “We shouldn’t wait for an epidemic to emerge somewhere before responding. By then, it would be too late.”
Africa remains exposed to the risk of disease outbreaks. The rare Bundibugyo virus has killed more than 3,600 people among nearly 7,500 cases in Congo since mid-May, when authorities announced a new deadly Ebola outbreak. The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the actual figures were likely three times higher than the official totals, describing the outbreak as the fastest-spreading Ebola outbreak in history. The virus circulated undetected for several weeks. In May, Hantavirus was also detected aboard a cruise ship that docked in the Atlantic off Cape Verde.
Scientists said that, without a major outbreak keeping the threat in focus, efforts to maintain health systems have declined. That could leave countries ill-prepared to respond to future epidemics.
Arthur Bodurie Calvin Garber, president of the Sierra Leone Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists, said governments must invest in skilled personnel as well as medical infrastructure.
