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Mukudzei Chingwere in LOMÉ, Togo
AMERICAN health and development philanthropists, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, wants to partner Zimbabwe in its fight against an emerging polio outbreak that has also been afflicting some countries in the Middle East and the SADC region.
Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, who is in the Togolese capital attending the 72nd session of the World Health Organisation regional committee for Africa, met executives from the leading donors to global health funding on the sidelines of the WHO programme. The interest by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation comes at a time President Mnangagwa has been leading the engagement and re-engagement drive to mend relations with formerly hostile nations and consolidate relations with those countries that have supported Harare for long.
Speaking after his meeting with Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s polio oversight board chair and president Dr Chris Elias, VP Chiwenga welcomed the partnership offer.
“I had a meeting with members of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation who are also attending the meeting here in Lomé,” said the VP.
“They were offering assistance for the polio and measles programmes and we were very clear to them that we would prefer, on the polio side, that we get the OPV (Oral Polio Vaccine) not the novel. As you are quite aware that we said we are open to all, and His Excellency the President has made it very clear that we are open to everyone, we have no enemy. It was quite interesting that they came to offer this on their own”.
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is a non-profit making organisation set up by billionaire businessman Bill Gates to push vaccination against killer diseases, both in the research area and in distribution.
It has been at the forefront of fighting global public health challenges and reportedly spent over US$2 billion on the global Covid-19 response.
Earlier on, VP Chiwenga had told journalists that the world should strive to ensure it avoids the devastating experience that befell it on the back of the Covid-19 pandemic.
He said it was good that global health authorities were back congregating physically again after a two-year Covid-19-induced break and as they congregate, the leaders should make sure that they come up with strategies that will put the globe in a position to deal with health emergencies.
This challenge, said VP Chiwenga, starts with how the world will deal with the emerging polio threat as well as the lingering challenge of non-communicable diseases.
“What happened with Covid-19 was a bad surprise which we would not want a repeat of,” said VP Chiwenga.
“When Covid-19 came, people least expected it and no one was prepared for it and therefore it caught everyone by surprise and this is what we are now trying to avoid and try to strategise and see how we, together as Africa, can fight such diseases when they do come.
“We are having so many diseases, for instance people have forgotten that we still have HIV because we are now only thinking of Covid-19, we are no longer thinking about other diseases. Now we have monkeypox coming up”.
Meanwhile, member states attending the meeting have endorsed a strategy to boost access to the diagnosis, treatment and care of severe non-communicable diseases.
WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, said Africa is grappling with an increasingly hefty burden of chronic diseases whose severe forms are costing precious lives that could be saved with early diagnosis and care.
She said the adopted strategy “is pivotal in placing effective care within the reach of patients and marks a major step in improving the health and well-being of millions of people in the region”.
Dr Moeti said this is more apparent as the Covid-19 pandemic had laid bare the fragility of the continent’s health infrastructure thus the need to urgently strengthen the overall health systems.
Online Reporter