00:01As Congo continues to battle an Ebola outbreak, the Federation of West African Medical Laboratory
00:07Science opened its first conference Wednesday in Lome, Togo's capital, to discuss the challenges
00:14posed by epidemics in Africa.
00:17When Ebola stroke in Sierra Leone, if it hadn't been for medical lab, you know, we would have
00:22lost so many lives.
00:23So, and it shows so many gaps in the country where we are lacking, particularly in terms
00:30of diagnostics.
00:31The diagnostics aspect of it was lacking, you know, in so many ways, with regards reagents,
00:37professionals and the likes.
00:39While the experts will draw on experiences from the continent and develop recommendations
00:45for governments to adopt, they are already calling on African leaders to prioritize epidemic
00:50prevention measures.
00:52In Congo, a weak surveillance system, insufficient contact tracing and laboratory testing have
00:58been blamed for the out-of-control Ebola outbreak.
01:02What we learned from COVID-19 and Ebola is that the African continent can face new outbreaks
01:09any time, outbreaks can emerge anywhere in the world, and Africa could once again become
01:15the starting point.
01:17We are already novice, but our governments have not fully recognized the need to put the necessary
01:24resources in place to deal with new cases.
01:31Officials in Congo have said that the world's fastest growing outbreak of Ebola on record has
01:37now spread to seven provinces in the country and was showing no signs of slowing down.
01:43Authorities have started vaccinating frontline health workers with the EVEBO vaccine, which the
01:49WHO says could offer some protection.
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