Africa must treat infectious diseases as a security issue

Teams from the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies bury the fourth orphan who died from Ebola at Mbiyo cemetery in Bunia, Ituri Province, on June 19, 2026. [AFP]

The next major infectious disease outbreak in Africa will not arrive politely through a hospital gate. It may arrive through a border post, a cattle market, a mining town, a truck stop, a refugee camp, an airport lounge, a mission hospital, a crowded school or a fishing village. By the time an official statement is released, fear may already be moving faster than the disease.

Africa must therefore stop treating infectious diseases as hospital matters only. They are security, economic, diplomatic and human survival questions. A disease outbreak can close borders, stop trade, empty classrooms, overwhelm hospitals, destroy tourism, weaken armies, divide communities and expose whether citizens trust the state when danger comes.

Long before colonial hospitals, African traditional societies had ways of managing infectious diseases. They may not have used the language of “epidemiology”, but they understood danger, isolation, cleansing, herbal treatment, community protection and respect for healers.

These systems were not perfect. Some explanations of disease were spiritual rather than biological. Some practices could delay referral. But they carried one lesson modern Africa should not forget: disease control works best when communities are involved. A people who trust their elders, healers, chiefs, religious leaders and local health workers will respond faster than a people who hear instructions only from distant capital cities.

Colonial rule changed the disease landscape. Envoys, traders, missionaries, soldiers and settlers moved across ports, caravan routes, mission stations, railway lines, plantations and mining settlements. Along with trade, religion and empire came smallpox, influenza, tuberculosis, venereal diseases, plague and sleeping sickness. Some missionaries built hospitals and treated Africans. Some colonial governments introduced vaccination and disease reporting. But colonial medicine was also unequal. It often protected labour, trade and settler populations before protecting African dignity.

After independence, African states inherited fragile health systems. New governments expanded hospitals, trained nurses, built ministries of health and fought malaria, TB, HIV and childhood diseases. Yet independence also revealed a difficult truth: political independence without health security is incomplete. A nation that cannot detect outbreaks early, produce vaccines, fund laboratories or protect border communities remains vulnerable.

COVID-19 exposed this weakness. Africa was praised for resilience, but the continent also saw vaccine inequality, oxygen shortages, misinformation, weak surveillance and dependence on external supply chains. Mpox, Ebola, Marburg, cholera, malaria, HIV and tuberculosis continue to remind us that infectious diseases are not history. They are present tense.

The future demands technological courage. Artificial intelligence (AI) is beginning to transform vaccine development. AI can scan viral genomes, predict antigens, identify immune targets and shorten the early design stage of vaccines. The dream is no longer to wait helplessly for a virus to spread before science responds. The dream is to build vaccine libraries and platforms for major virus families before they become pandemics.

When the next outbreak comes, Africans will not only ask whether there is a doctor. They will ask: Did leaders warn us early? Are borders prepared? Are laboratories working? Are vaccines accessible? Are communities involved? Can we trust what we are being told?

Preparedness must begin before panic. Africa’s strongest defence is not fear. It is trusted leadership, informed communities, strong science, local manufacturing and a health security system rooted in both African experience and modern innovation.

— The author is a scholar-diplomat, diplomacy, foreign policy and security expert