The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has warned that climate change is increasingly reshaping infectious disease patterns across Africa, driving new transmission dynamics for malaria and other epidemics.
It said the development is also exposing gaps in national surveillance systems, raising concerns about preparedness and response capacity across several African countries.
Prof. Yap Boum I, Deputy Incident Manager for Mpox at the Africa CDC Incident Management Support Team IMST, disclosed this on Thursday. He spoke during the agency’s weekly high level regional press conference on disease preparedness across member states.
He said African countries were at varying levels of preparedness, noting that while some had strong outbreak response capacity, others still faced critical gaps in surveillance, early detection, and effective epidemic response systems.
Boum added that Africa CDC was working closely with member states to identify system strengths and weaknesses, with the aim of providing targeted technical support and strengthening continental epidemic preparedness frameworks.
In a related discussion, Dr Landry Tsaque, Director of Primary Health Care at Africa CDC, said Africa still accounted for nearly 95 per cent of global malaria deaths in spite of available tools such as diagnostics, treatment, and vaccines.
He warned that climate change was altering mosquito behaviour, contributing to malaria resurgence in areas previously close to elimination, including parts of Southern Africa and other vulnerable regions. Tsaque explained that shifting rainfall patterns, rising temperatures, and environmental changes were expanding mosquito breeding sites and affecting parasite transmission and response to existing control measures.
He said Africa CDC was scaling up genomic surveillance and cross-border monitoring to track evolving disease patterns and improve regional coordination for more effective public health interventions. He added that upcoming World Malaria Day activities on April 25 will focus on strengthening surveillance systems, improving data sharing, and closing gaps in epidemic intelligence across African countries.
