Response to Disease Out breaks in Africa: A Call to Build Resilient Health Systems

Although resilienceResilience has been central to building health systemsSystem, health, conceptual clarity and consensus on its measurement are murky. Refocusing the discourse from merely disease outbreak to acute and chronic stressors is imperative. It should follow moving beyond strengthening health systemSystem, health building blocks to encompass software issues, including values, norms, relationships, managementManagement, and organization. This chapter traces vulnerabilitiesVulnerability and the history of epidemicEpidemics-related emergencies in Africa and synthesizes conceptual issues in health systemSystem resilienceResilience and measurement attempts. Africa’s health systemsSystem, health and capacities are abysmal on the Global HealthHealth Security Index, scoring averagely 15% (range: 0.3%–33%), while, based on inherent resilienceResilience, 22 countries scored below 50%, with scores ranging from 22 to 88%. The differences between these approachesApproach at least partly lie in conceptual and measurement issues. However, it is conclusively clear that the road to resilienceResilience is still long in Africa, epitomized by 3.3 million people suffering 1,910 episodes of disease outbreaks with a 13% fatality rate between 1990 and 2019. The chapter provides an impetus to rethink building resilienceResilience as a continuous process of creative adaptationAdaptation and transformation informed by the ever-evolving nature of context-specific issues, not merely focusing on bouncing back after acute shocks. Thus, the notion of inherent resilienceResilience to both acute and chronic shocks is critical, taking into account the need for continuous adaptationAdaptation to embrace developments in global healthHealth, digital innovations, and epidemiological and demographic transitions. This chapter calls for a need for consensus on a fit-for-purpose approachApproach and indicators on building a resilient health systemSystem, health.