Community-Level Health Interventions are Crucial in the Post-COVID-19 Era: Lessons from Africa’s Proactive Public Health Policy Interventions

Abstract

Measured against the gloomy pre-COVID-19 predictions, Africa has fared far better than most regions in managing the pandemic. This much, however, has received less attention. This paper answers the question: how have the new rituals of self determination in public health affected the successful management of COVID-19 in Africa, and how can the continent and the rest of the world build on such models/lessons in the post-pandemic era? I employ emancipatory theorising in reviewing literature on approaches to governance of COVID-19. The rationale is to empower the grassroots and to accentuate the urgency for a decolonized local ownership of the governance of all public health crises. I argue that while traditional international cooperation is necessary for additional resource and expertise from the global North for sustainable health, the political will of Southern governments remains fundamental for any extraordinary success due to its grassroots/community orientation towards non-pharmaceutical interventions and initial pre-emptive rituals. The novelty in this paper is that it lays bare the ignored African responses and lessons and reveals how to harness protective communitarian ethos in solving future crises. The paper further provides population health as an ‘immune system’ policy framework for explaining and predicting how a scientific and human-centrered grassroots leadership can yield optimal outcomes in any future crisis.

Market violence through destructive entrepreneurship: Assessing institutional responses to the proliferation of counterfeit traditional and alternative medicines in Ghana

“…At the same time, such advances have increased patients’ expectations [ 5 , [10] , [11] , [12] ]. That notwithstanding, the impact of these improvements has not always been felt by some populations in emerging economies due to a lack of access to quality healthcare and pharmaceuticals owing to the overall weakness of the public health system [ 13 , 14 ]. More precisely, emerging economies pay 20 times more for life-saving medicines than industrialised economies [ 15 ], provided such medicines are available in the first place.…”

“…Since its formation in 1948, the WHO has defined health as “ a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity ” [ 14 ]. This definition leaves out the fundamental pillars of health in terms of community and population health where inequality and income disparity or forms of discrimination affect health outcomes [ 13 ]. This is because health is much more than the absence of disease suffered by individuals [ 13 , 21 ].…”

“…This definition leaves out the fundamental pillars of health in terms of community and population health where inequality and income disparity or forms of discrimination affect health outcomes [ 13 ]. This is because health is much more than the absence of disease suffered by individuals [ 13 , 21 ]. Therefore, the question being posed covers the multidimensional aspects beyond medicalized conceptualizations to unpack the social value that is destroyed with counterfeits or created with institutional interventions.…”