Funding cuts threaten Africa's progress in fight against disease

Africa risks losing ground against disease officials at an African Union health summit warned on Wednesday.

Cuts in international aid and limited domestic investment are threatening decades of progress against HIV, malaria and tuberculosis, the head of the World Health Organization told the Extraordinary Summit in Accra on Wednesday.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged governments to take greater responsibility for funding their own health systems:

“Strengthening health systems must be at the center of everything you decide in Accra. WHO stands with you as a partner, providing technical guidance and support. But only Africa's leaders can deliver the political will and domestic investment this moment requires.”

The summit comes as the Democratic Republic of the Congo battles one of the worst-ever Ebola outbreaks. It was identified in May after spreading undetected for weeks.

“The Global Council on Inequality, AIDS and Pandemics, which I convene, found that pandemics and inequality reinforce one another in a vicious cycle," Winnie Byanyima, executive director of UNAIDS, told the meeting:

"Inequalities allow outbreaks to become pandemics. Pandemics, in turn, deepen inequalities within and between countries, and then they become more vulnerable to the next pandemic. Breaking that cycle is one of the defining challenges of our time.”

The Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo is spreading rapidly through the conflict-hit region. It's driven by the Bundibugyo virus for which there's no vaccine or approved treatment.

The two-day summit focused on enhancing health security across the continent by mobilising political leadership, strengthening strategic partnerships and promoting local pharmaceutical manufacturing.