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Dr. Patrick Amoth, Director-General at Ministry of Health, Kenya, and Dr. Youngmee Jee, CEO of IPK, discuss measures to strengthen pandemic response in Africa
2022-04-19
Dr. Patrick Amoth, Director-General at Ministry of Health, Kenya, and Dr. Youngmee Jee, CEO of IPK, discuss measures to strengthen pandemic response in Africa
On April 12, Dr. Patrick Amoth, Director-General for Health at Ministry of Health, Kenya, and Vice-President of the World Health Organization (WHO) Executive Board, visited Institut Pasteur Korea (IPK) and met with Dr. Youngmee Jee, CEO of IPK. The two discussed support and cooperation measures for strengthening COVID-19 response in Africa.
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Dr. Patrick Amoth expressed that he was highly impressed by Korea's COVID-19 response and said that Africa is experiencing difficulties responding to COVID-19 due to low COVID-19 vaccination rate (around 15%) and inadequate health and medical infrastructure. In the meanwhile, the supply of goods has worsened with each country’s pandemic restrictions. Dr. Amoth revealed that internal efforts are being made to improve Kenya’s medical system and control the spread of disease to overcome the COVID-19 crisis. However, international cooperation is necessary to improve access to vaccines and increase vaccine production capacity in Africa at a mid-to-long-term perspective. Besides COVID-19, he urged that global interest is needed in controlling diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria, cholera, hepatitis, and AIDS, which are also prevalent in Africa, and asked for cooperation from IPK regarding this matter.
Dr. Youngmee Jee explained how Korea’s reorganization of its pandemic response system after the MERS outbreak in 2015 worked favorably during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mentioning her awareness of the challenges with COVID-19 response in the African region, she said that one strategy to fundamentally increase vaccine production and supply would be establishing the Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturers Network (DCVMN) in Africa, which she is continuously proposing at various international conferences. Dr. Jee is actively participating in global leadership activities related to COVID-19 response as a member of the WHO COVID-19 IHR Emergency Committee and the Vaccine Safety Evaluation Committee of CEPI SPEAC.
Additionally, Dr. Jee suggested various possibilities for cooperation between Korea and Africa to help advance Africa’s infectious disease response capacity. Specifically, since Korea was recently selected as the “WHO Global Biomanufacturing Workforce Training Hub,” plans are to provide education and training on vaccine and biopharmaceutical production processes to support vaccine self-supply in low- and middle-income countries. She also suggested seeking collaboration with the Korea Foundation for International Healthcare (KOFIH) for expanded support in the healthcare field. Furthermore, she proposed creating new opportunities for infectious disease research collaboration between IPK and research institutes in Kenya.
Dr. Patrick Amoth expressed that he was highly impressed by Korea's COVID-19 response and said that Africa is experiencing difficulties responding to COVID-19 due to low COVID-19 vaccination rate (around 15%) and inadequate health and medical infrastructure. In the meanwhile, the supply of goods has worsened with each country’s pandemic restrictions. Dr. Amoth revealed that internal efforts are being made to improve Kenya’s medical system and control the spread of disease to overcome the COVID-19 crisis. However, international cooperation is necessary to improve access to vaccines and increase vaccine production capacity in Africa at a mid-to-long-term perspective. Besides COVID-19, he urged that global interest is needed in controlling diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria, cholera, hepatitis, and AIDS, which are also prevalent in Africa, and asked for cooperation from IPK regarding this matter.
Dr. Youngmee Jee explained how Korea’s reorganization of its pandemic response system after the MERS outbreak in 2015 worked favorably during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mentioning her awareness of the challenges with COVID-19 response in the African region, she said that one strategy to fundamentally increase vaccine production and supply would be establishing the Developing Countries Vaccine Manufacturers Network (DCVMN) in Africa, which she is continuously proposing at various international conferences. Dr. Jee is actively participating in global leadership activities related to COVID-19 response as a member of the WHO COVID-19 IHR Emergency Committee and the Vaccine Safety Evaluation Committee of CEPI SPEAC.
Additionally, Dr. Jee suggested various possibilities for cooperation between Korea and Africa to help advance Africa’s infectious disease response capacity. Specifically, since Korea was recently selected as the “WHO Global Biomanufacturing Workforce Training Hub,” plans are to provide education and training on vaccine and biopharmaceutical production processes to support vaccine self-supply in low- and middle-income countries. She also suggested seeking collaboration with the Korea Foundation for International Healthcare (KOFIH) for expanded support in the healthcare field. Furthermore, she proposed creating new opportunities for infectious disease research collaboration between IPK and research institutes in Kenya.