Africa is in a crisis. With a lack of sanitation, few resources, and the long-term consequences of colonization, the continent of Africa has been the hardest hit by epidemics such as the widespread transfer of HIV, the prevalence of malaria, and most recently, the COVID-19 virus. Despite efforts to deploy vaccines to citizens for polio and other diseases, it is impossible to secure the healthcare needed for those living in the 54 countries in Africa. Along with the spread of harmful diseases, disabilities plague these people, contributing to the crisis at hand. A supporting factor is the rate of poverty in these countries. In all of Africa, 34 countries are considered low-income. These member states are the hardest hit by infectious diseases. In reference to the global pandemic, the continent at hand was hardest hit, and not just in the health sector. Although the mortality rate is not the only indicator, over 250,000 people died in Africa, almost 1,000 in Tanzania alone. Stepping away from the number of deaths, 12.42 million people were infected, 26-40 million people in sub-Saharan African countries fell into poverty, and South Africa specifically, their GDP dropped by 51 percent. Although Africa has a low infected rate compared to the rest of the world, the economic effects greatly outweighed any other region. The spread of infectious disease is not just a crisis in Africa, but around the world. According to a World Health Organization report, in 2002 nearly 60 percent of all deaths can be attributed to chronic and cardiovascular diseases.

Because of the prevalence of malaria in Africa, there is also a high rate of sickle-cell anemia. With this, along with other diseases such as diabetes and rheumatic heart disease, it is important that the United Nations take action, and they have. According to a 2016 report by UNAIDS, new HIV infections have declined by 14 percent between 2010-2015 in Eastern and Southern Africa, and eight percent in West and Central Africa. On September 11th, 2020, during the height of the global pandemic, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a 14-page Omnibus Resolution, with the goal of calling for a holistic approach to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as action to be taken toward the eradication of Malaria in Africa. Tanzania voted in favor of this resolution.
Because of the fact that Africa makes up 25 percent of the world’s disease burden yet shares less than one percent of global health expenditures, something needs to be done. In 2001, African countries agreed to allocate at least 15 percent of their budgets to health care, yet, only six have done so. This same year, 2001, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention established an office in Tanzania, to support HIV/AIDS prevention. This office expanded in 2003 to also include tuberculosis prevention for those living with HIV, while also enhancing technology and surveillance to avoid disease outbreaks. Tanzania borders eight countries, increasing the country’s risk for cross-border disease outbreaks and epidemics. This means, considering the COVID-19 pandemic, Tanzania is increasingly more vulnerable to the spread of disease. The CDC supports Tanzania to strengthen International Health Regulations, to comprehensively prevent, rapidly detect, and effectively respond to health threats. Since the first case of COVID-19 in Tanzania in March 2020, the CDC supported the Government of Tanzania distributing more than 11 million vaccinations, as of December 2022.

PEN-PLUS is a new strategy adopted by the United Nations World Health Organization in the Regional Committee in Africa in reference to addressing the spread of non-communicable diseases and helping those affected at first-level referral health facilities. This plan includes building higher-capacity district hospitals and other first-level facilities in order to manage non-communicable diseases. Because of the burden noncommunicable diseases cause on children, especially those with sickle cell anemia and other diseases, it is imperative that we fund and expand this PEN-PLUS program. This program also includes instituting standardized programs to tackle these diseases, so each country and region has the same medication, technologies, and practices available to each citizen. According to a 2019 WHO survey, only 36 percent of countries in the African continent have access to essential medications for these diseases in public hospitals. Along with the United Nations PEN-PLUS program, Governments have the responsibility to ensure their citizen’s health care that they need.