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CHRISTIAN Happi, a professor of Molecular Biology and Genomics, is a renowned scientist, who believes that many diseases afflicting Africa are a blessing in disguise. Recently, he used next-generation sequencing technology to perform the first sequence of the new SARS-CoV-2 in Africa – within 48 hours of receiving a sample of the first case in Nigeria, according to a post on the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA.
This seminal work not only provided an insight into the detailed genetic map of the new coronavirus in Africa, but also confirmed the origin of the virus and paved the way for the development of new countermeasures, including new diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines, said IAEA.
Happi, who is also the director of the World Bank-funded African Center of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Diseases, ACEGID, at the Redeemer’s University in Nigeria, explained at the panelist session at the launch of the African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation, an initiative of the African Development Bank on May 2, that Africa is in a better place to assist the world to cope with disease outbreak based from the experience its scientist have garnered over the years from managing many diseases in the continent.
He did his postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard University, where he subsequently worked as a research scientist and later became an adjunct Professor at Harvard University School of Public Health. He has garnered many awards and prizes, including the Merle A. Sande Health Leadership Award in 2011; the 2016 Award of Excellence in Research by the Committee of Vice-Chancellors of Nigerian Universities; the 2019 Human Genome Organization, HUGO, Africa Prize for his seminal work on infectious diseases genomics in Africa, including Ebola and Lassa fever, and the 2020 Bailey K. Ashford Medal by the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, ASTMH, and 2021 Trinity Challenge Award for Sentinel forecasting systems for Infectious Disease Risk, Africa Lives – Development Award. He is a Fellow of the Academy of Medicine Specialties of Nigeria.
On the sidelines of the African Development Bank Annual Meetings in May in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, Happi speaks to Maureen Chigbo, publisher/editor, Realnews on the importance of the APTF, brain circulation in addressing health challenges in the continent and why Africa is yet to find a permanent cure for malaria, which UNICEF data show ravages around 247 million people globally with a total of 61900 deaths in 2021. Seventy-seven percent were children under five years of age. Nigeria has the highest rate of malaria death at 31.3 percent, the Democratic Republic of Congo at 12.6 percent; Tanzania at 4.1 percent, and Niger at 3.9 percent. The interview is thought-provoking as well as illuminating. Excerpts:
Realnews: During the panel session on the African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation, APTF, you talked so much about brain circulation. That’s a new concept. Could you explain more about this?
Happi: Brain circulation is actually just the concept that if you exchange ideas, those ideas will create solutions, and those solutions can help address problems and there has been a direct correlation between brain circulation and development. That means, countries or environments that allow people to come together often result in innovation, and those innovations are actually to address problems. The challenge with Africa is the fact that immigration rules and barriers do not allow people to circulate within the continent. Actually, it’s easier for an African to go from Africa to Europe and America than go to another African country, and therefore, how do you expect African scientists or African researchers to interact and create innovation when it is impossible for them to sit together, very difficult for them to come together and then think. And that’s why we hope that through a platform like APTF, for instance, it’s possible to create platforms where you can bring people together to share ideas. But as I said before, I think in order to make progress, Africa needs to break down the silos. Africa needs to break down all of these borders and let brains circulate. Let the people sit down freely and discuss. Look at America, look at the EU, they’re only making progress because they’ve understood the value of knowledge circulation. In Africa, as I said, knowledge is caged. It’s much more difficult for you to go from Nigeria to South Africa to share knowledge than it’ll be for you to go from Nigeria to the US because the immigration rules are such that it’s practically impossible. I give you an instance. I was supposed to go from Nigeria to Kenya on a World Bank mission to go share knowledge in Kenya, but I was told for you to do that you need to send your passport. It takes three weeks. My passport cannot be in an embassy for three weeks. Therefore, I can’t do that crossing, who loses? The Kenyans lose. But if I am going to the American embassy, in 48 hours, I get my passport, right? And I’m gone. So Africa needs to think beyond the way we’re operating now. There are just too many silos. We’re all the same people talking about the African proverb that says, “If you want to go fast go alone, if you want to go far go together”. That togetherness is not there.
Realnews: Most people would disagree with your opinion that “God gave Africa diseases and that it’s a blessing in disguise”
Happi: Of course, it is a blessing. You know, problems need solutions. When you have a problem, they say “Necessity is a mode of invention”. So when you have a disease, what do you do? You find a solution. In reality, that’s just the truth. So Africa should have been the leader in creating solutions for diseases. So the person that would disagree with me will realise that you do a disservice to yourself. When you have got a problem, do you expect your neighbour to come and solve it for you? Or you solve it yourself. So if God has given you a problem, which is the disease, who do you think that God expects to solve the problem?
Realnews: Why has it take so long for Africa to find a solution to malaria that has killed more people than Covid-19 that shut down the world?
Happi: Because Africa doesn’t invest where its mouth is. How much are African governments investing in research and development to find a cure for malaria? Not much, that is one. Number two is that even the research and development for malaria vaccines are done in the wrong place.
How do you have an African problem trying to be resolved in America? How do you expect that to work optimally? The research should be done in Africa by the patient’s bedside. I do research on malaria, when a child in Africa is sick, when you say a child has malaria, if you go there and start to understand what is causing malaria in an African child, the child at times is infected with up to 12 different malaria parasites. Now you take the sample, keep it in a freezer and take it to America, by the time you want to revive the sample, maybe eight out of the 12 malaria parasites are dead, you’re now working with just four malaria parasites and you think you’re coming to solve the problem of a child that’s infected with 12 malaria parasites. It’s not going to work minimally because you did not address all of the parasites. If the vaccines were being developed here in Africa, they’d develop a vaccine that can cure the 12 malaria parasites affecting that child.
Realnews: You said, Africa is the cradle of civilization, knowledge and humanity. It appears our leaders lack the knowledge to do the right thing.
Happi: I don’t think it’s a lack of knowledge to do the right thing. I think they know what the right thing is, but they don’t do it is just the fact that they don’t have confidence in themselves as a people. But it’s also a product of colonization. You know, if you’re being told every day that you’re stupid, at some point, you tend to believe it. And I think this is exactly what happens, the narrative has always been that Africans can’t do much, to a point whereby the generation that’s been ruling up till today, for instance, because they’ve been told all the time that you can’t do anything. If you tell a child every day that you’re stupid, at some point the child will believe that he is stupid.
Realnews: Are you saying that our leaders, who have travelled all over the world, some of them who schooled in America are stupid?
Happi: No, no. This is what I’m saying, they make you believe that you can’t do anything, it’s not about where you went to school, it’s about having confidence in yourself.
Realnews: Is it, not defeatism?
Happi: I don’t think so. For instance, I do have colleagues who went to school where I went to school. They came back to Africa. Some of them believed that they can’t do much, but I believe that we can change the world. It is that perception, the fact that you need to be self-determined, you need to know that you can do as much, if not better than others. It’s not really the fact that we’re defeatists. No, we’re not. I think the reality is that we need to have self-belief and self-confidence. Think about it, we created diagnostics for COVID. We created vaccines for COVID.
Why didn’t we move forward, because the mindset of the average minister in Africa is “you got to buy”. Procurement from outside because they believe that what comes from outside seems to be better. But why won’t you invest where your mouth is? And Africa has to do that. That’s what other people are doing. It’s not about the private sector or public sector. I think we also got it wrong from the beginning, where we think that something has to be done to the public sector or private sector. No, it’s very wrong. The reality is when you have a problem, it is not the public or private sector that solves it. We need to look for the pool of excellence, where you can have the problem solved, think about it. When COVID was on, who created the vaccines in America? The private sector. Who funded it? The government. The government realized that “I have the money but I can’t solve the problem, let’s go to the best places, let’s go to those who can give us solutions. But in Africa, we think the government has to find a solution. Go to the place that has the skill and expertise, give them the money and tell them I need a solution.
Realnews: Can you talk about this African Pharmaceutical Technology Foundation, APTF?
Happi: I think it’s a great platform. We hope that can come and fill the gap because really right now, Africa needs to create its own vaccine, create its own diagnostics, create its own medicine.
And we believe that the APTF can help catalyse knowledge and be very transformational to a point whereby we can take that knowledge and manufacture those goods on the continent.
Realnews: Finally, what’s your assessment of the health situation, health facilities in the continent and Nigeria in particular?
Happi: Well, I think that Africa can do the most with what it has. But we need to try to innovate with what we have. COVID has shown us that you don’t throw money at a disease and succeed.
We saw the West throwing so much money, but it didn’t succeed that much. So it is about skills, it’s about knowledge, it is also about experience. Africa has a lot of experience when it comes to disease management, but we need to really now go into the next step, which is innovation and solutions that will go into the hands of patients.
A.
– June 30, 2023 @ 13:10 GMT |
Tags: CHRISTIAN Happi HUGO IAEA. UNICEF
