How and Why the Global Emerging Pathogens Treatment Consortium Was Created

Abstract

The challenges Africa is facing include, among others, the increasing incidence of emerging Infectious diseases (EIDs) which are worsened by Africa’s inadequate health care facilities, expanding population demographics and shortage of human capacity in medical and allied sciences. The convergence of the above four pose threats of the magnitude that we experienced with the Ebola outbreak in West Africa (Kamradt-Scott A, Third World Q 37:401–418, 2016), the ongoing outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo and many other current infectious disease outbreaks, like yellow fever, meningitis, Lassa fever, to name a few. There is therefore an urgent need for harnessing and deploying science, technology and innovation to address some of these challenges. This need has been the subject of major policy and academic debates of late, and Africa, like the rest of the world, has taken some steps towards realising this (Abuja Declaration). The Global Emerging Pathogens Treatment Consortium (GET) is made up of African experts who had assembled to set up interventions to address, in the first instance, the West African Ebola outbreak, and subsequently to address biosecurity issues on the Continent.

The consortium has experts from across Africa in collaboration with regional and international partners, and its objectives are well stated together with its governance system towards the implementation of its objectives. GET Consortium’s ultimate objectives, in collaboration with other stakeholders, are to define African strategies in a global context to curtail EID outbreak and biosecurity threats by developing improved awareness, preparedness, preventive measures, capacity building and a deeper scientific understanding of the root-cause relationship between expanding human footprints and environmental integrity.