As African leaders give their position on the impact of climate change in the continent through the Nairobi declaration today, the health agenda has adversely been ignored despite the nexus between climate change and health.
Speaking during a side event of the Africa climate summit, the Acting Deputy Director General of Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Dr Ahmed Ouma Ogwell said the health agenda has been excluded from the negotiating table.
Exclusion happened despite 23 per cent of diseases globally being attributed to climate change, whereas the percentage is documented to be higher in Sub-Saharan Africa at 29 per cent.
Dr Ogwell said that the Africa CDC is developing a position paper to have the health agenda in relation to climate change as a top priority for COP 28.
According to Africa CDC, the conversation on the climate and health agenda at COP 28 should use indigenous knowledge and translate climate and health priorities into measurable action.
"We must bring the issues (health agenda) around, held on to the discussions of our climate summit. Not just to the continent, but also globally," said Dr Ogwell.
Ogwell added, "We are saying this is our core agenda that we've talked enough, talking for 30 or so years, I think it is enough talking, it is now time for action.
The African continent according to Ogwell is experiencing the adverse effects of climate change, namely agricultural disruptions and food insecurity, which might cripple the healthcare system if action is not taken.
According to WHO, Chad, South Sudan, Mali and Mozambique are among 45 countries in the world with a very high, and high-risk index of which, 23 representing 50 per cent are in Africa.
Additional data by Africa CDC reveals that a total of 178,672 cases of cholera have been detected in 17 African countries this year, according to data by Africa CDC, numbers which suppressed the annual totals from 2019 and 2022.
At least five countries accounted for more than 50 per cent of the cases in 223, namely Malawi, Mozambique, DRC, Ethiopia, and Somalia.
"Agriculture is suffering, health is suffering, and development is suffering. So bringing the health discussion onto the agenda of the climate change platform is essential for Africa," said Dr Ogwell.
"We need to talk about the relationship between climate change health, environment, and animal health is trying to bring all these together to see how best we can be able to prevent the disaster that comes about as a result of the effects of climate change," said Ogwell.
Ogwell said the African continent has been talking a lot about climate change for over three decades, and it should be part of the COP 28 to be held in December.
Climate change according to Ogwell is directly linked to health, and that its agenda should be a priority.
"Health as a point of discussion within the climate summit is a priority, and we are bringing that priority to the discussion of the Africa Climate Summit. And we will bring that priority to the COP 28 later on in December this year," said Ogwell.
According to him, any discussion around financing for climate change mitigation and prevention must include financing for health.
"We have the disease that comes about as a result of disruption in the animal system, for example, drought, then you end up with yellow fever, you end up with a fever, etc. We have the emerging diseases Ebola, you have Marburg diseases that were not really within the human population before but because we are disrupting the client or the environment, then they come into the population," he said.
Further, Ogwell said there is a need for African states to partner and address the priorities of the continent and the priorities of the continent, including addressing climate-related health emergencies.
On her part, Dr Judy Omumbo, a vector-borne disease epidemiologist, climate change enthusiast, and researcher said there is a need for African states to find solutions on how to handle emerging health crises.
Omumbo, critiqued African leaders for failing to include a health agenda, when addressing climate change and development, saying lack of involvement results in a strained health system.
"Every time we think about development, it is always Gross Domestic Production (GDP)- innovation in energy, and agriculture, but we do not talk about people and the survival of species and people. People need to be at the centre. It is about their health and food system,' said Dr Omumbo.
The scientist added that health experts and researchers should also be involved by states in policymaking, for action.
"We must as a health sector say it is important to have experts at the center of collaboration. We require health experts to sit in policymaking places," she said. "I want to hear what the government has prioritised. I want to understand why agriculture is prioritised and not health".
Additionally, Africa CDC has endorsed a one-health approach to address shared health threats at the human-animal-environment interface for a safer and healthier Africa.
One health approach is a transdisciplinary approach to making Africa safer and healthier for humans, animals, plants, and their shared environment.
At least 60 per cent of existing human infectious diseases are zoonotic, whereas 75 percent of emerging infectious diseases of humans including Ebola, HIV, and influenza have an animal origin.
"We have the disease that comes about as a result of disruption in the animal system, for example, drought, then you end up with yellow fever, you end up with a fever, etc. We have the emerging diseases Ebola, you have Marburg diseases that were not really within the human population before but because we are disrupting the client or the environment, then they come into the population," said Ogwell.
Also in attendance was Dr Kutane Waitaji Terfa, Health and Environment Officer, WHO Ethiopia who said the most vulnerable country in the world to the impacts of climate variability and change.
Terfa said despite the health systems grappling to provide care to affected individuals in the highly affected countries and the continent at large, less is being done to address the environmental variability attributed to the crisis.
"People are talking about malaria increase but not addressing environment variability, which is important in malaria transmission," said the WHO representative.
However, even with the extreme weather patterns healthcare system, Terfa said there is low adaptive capacity of the health system and weak investment in capacity building and advanced technology.
"The existing health service delivery system is not resilient to recurrent extreme weather events followed by recurrent infectious disease outbreaks," said Dr Terfa.
Terfa added, "We are responding to cholera, but we need to go back to disease surveillance. This is one of the challenges, lack of response, and response to shock,"
