Currently, there are more than 64 million confirmed cases of COVID-19, above 44 recoveries and almost 1.5 million deaths. The pandemic is surging in the U.S. and Europe. However, sub-Saharan African countries are responding better to COVID-19. This has confounded scientists and thought leaders. The answer lies in Africa’s experience responding to different infectious disease outbreaks simultaneously and investments in epidemic preparedness. In this talk, Dr. Ifeanyi M. Nsofor shares his experience leading EpiAFRIC’s evaluation of African Union’s response to the 2014/2015 Ebola outbreak in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Lessons learnt from that response led to the establishment of the African Centres for Disease Control to coordinate efforts across the continent and also increased investments in epidemic preparedness by member states. He draws examples from the work of Nigeria Centre for Disease Control to show that epidemic preparedness is more cost-effective and makes more business sense than waiting to just respond to an infectious disease outbreak. He shares lessons from Nigeria’s COVID-19 response and how they should guide future epidemic preparedness. He urges western nations to learn from Africa’s and Asia’s COVID-19 response. He reminds all that a future pandemic is inevitable. Therefore, the time to prepare is now. A graduate of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine is a Senior New Voices Fellow at the Aspen Institute and a Senior Atlantic Fellow for Health Equity at George Washington University.
Hes the CEO of EpiAFRIC and Director, Policy and Advocacy at Nigeria Health Watch. Since 2018, the #PreventEpidemicsNaija project has been advocating for increased budgetary allocation for epidemic preparedness in Nigeria.
As a thought Leader in Global Health, Ifeanyi has written over 68 opinion pieces with a global reach — his piece titled, “Why an Ebola Vaccine is Not Enough” has appeared in 18 publications in 16 countries; and published in 8 languages; appeared in over 4.3 million print copies; been seen over 36,000 times on Project Syndicate social media channels. In March 2020, Ifeanyi spoke at “Exploring Media Ecosystems Conference” at the Samberg Center of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was recognized by Onalytica to be among Coronavirus Top 100 healthcare professionals globally. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx