Health
COVID-19: Urgent Need for African Governments to Upgrade Health Systems
By Kester Kenn Klomegah
Amid multifold theories and disinformation spreading around the COVID-19 in Africa, it is important for African governments to consider strengthening the existing health systems and infrastructures, and allocate substantial funds for health research and production of basic equipment, for attaining sustainable development goals set in the African Agenda 2063, according to experts.
Over the years, most African countries with the exception of South Africa, Botswana and a few others have not improved much on their healthcare system since independence, partly as a result of pure negligence on the part of senior officials who prefer to be treated abroad. The leaders of Cameroon, Nigeria and Zimbabwe are notorious for spending long periods of time abroad in hospitals, according to Dr Chipo Dendere, Zimbabwean Professor of African Politics at Wellesley College in Massachusetts.
As Dendere further noted in a discussion with IDN, “African leaders have to start thinking seriously about issues of healthcare or people will die. They have to realize that going abroad is no longer an option. In all, it is significant for the leaders to focus on financing sustainable public health system, make investment in the health sector using public and natural resources. Public/private partnerships have never hurt, but have to be seriously considered”.
Particularly because Africa’s population is growing, and presents future health challenges, she added. Dendere, however, stressed that various debt relief efforts by international organizations should not be an end itself, and instead African leaders must necessarily look for long-term solutions for existing pitfalls in the sector.
In the month of April, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) have offered debt relief to African countries. The IMF is set to provide $11 billion to 32 countries in sub-Saharan Africa that have requested assistance in fighting the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on the region’s economies.
These steps by the IMF and its partners – the World Bank, World Health Organization, the African Development Bank and the African Union – will support domestic measures including transfers to vulnerable households, monetary and fiscal policy responses, Abebe Aemro Selassie, the director of the IMF’s African Department, said in a statement.
In a similar argument, Charles Prempeh, a lecturer in Africana Studies at the African University College of Communications (AUCC), Accra and doctoral candidate at the University of Cambridge, explained in an email to IDN that there are a lot of deficiencies – ranging from poor health policies through inadequate funding of health infrastructure to training and research – that have characterized the health sector in Africa.
In his view, amid the fast spreading coronavirus in some regions, it is simply “providential” that the African continent has not recorded high numbers, compared to the western countries. But it is also true that even with the relatively smaller number of cases that most countries in Africa have recorded, they have come under disproportionate strain.
Prempreh argued that over the years, many African leaders travelled abroad (including South Africa) in search of medical care. While many African countries have research institutions, designed for studying so-called orthodox and indigenous medicines, the existence of these institutions has not yielded the expected results of enhancing the quality of healthcare on the continent, he said, adding: “In many cases, these health research institutions have been starved of funding.”
Consequently, many countries in Africa are looking up to the west to find an antidote to COVID-19 that has held the world hostage. This has implied that few Africans have invested in exploring the extent to which indigenous medicine could potentially provide an answer to the current health crisis. It is, therefore, not surprising that the COVID-19 pandemic provides lenses to peep into the deep cracks in the entire health system in Africa. It also provides important lessons for African leaders to learn now to invest in the health sector, Prempreh concluded.
Beyond all the arguments raised above, Dr Antipas Massawe, a former lecturer from the Department of Chemical and Mining Engineering, University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania, East Africa, strongly insisted that “the scale of the challenges facing the health sector is tremendous, it requires extensive investment of resources and state to direct focus on the development agenda”.
Acknowledging that Africa is a huge continent of vast inequality where almost two-thirds still live in abject poverty and years of neglect has left the health system in tatters, Massawe added: “As compared with most of the other advanced countries that have global competitive healthcare systems, African countries spend peanuts within the budget on bolstering health infrastructure in Africa.”
The African governments should create the environment conducive for the evolution of competitive healthcare systems through prioritization. Governments have to work toward the empowerment of wealth creation endeavours, adopt system approach that would enable to understand the interdependence of African problems and outline how to tackle questions of the largely weak health as fast as possible, he suggested.
The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), in a new report on the coronavirus pandemic, underscored that the economic implications of this disease are detrimental not only to public health systems but also the economy and sociocultural lives of the entire population of Africa.
The ECA makes explicitly clear that as the pandemic continues to impact the continent’s struggling economies whose growth are expected to slow down from 3.2 percent to 1.8 percent, within this short period it is likely to push close to 27 million people into extreme poverty.
The report launched virtually in mid-April titled, “COVID-19: Protecting African Lives and Economies” says Africa’s fragile health systems could see additional costs being imposed on them because of the growing crisis that has to-date, resulted in thousands infected Africans.
Dr Vera Songwe, UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of ECA said: “To protect and build towards the Continent’s shared prosperity, $100 billion is needed to urgently and immediately provide fiscal space to all countries to help address the immediate safety net needs of the populations.”
Africa, notes Songwe, is particularly susceptible because 56 percent of its urban population is concentrated in slums or “informal” dwellings and only 34 percent of African households have access to basic handwashing facilities. Among others, she proposes that intellectual property on medical supplies, novel testing kits, and vaccines be shared to help Africa’s private sector play its role in the response, and most importantly policies must be firm and clear on good governance to safeguard health systems, ensure proper use of emergency funds.
In a widely circulated letter, various co-signatories in April, including 100 leading academics and writers, have called on African leaders to govern with compassion and see the current global health crisis as a chance for a radical change of direction. “Like a tectonic storm, the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to shatter the foundations of states and institutions whose profound failings have been ignored for too long. It is impossible to list these, suffice it to mention chronic under-investment in public health” in Africa notes the letter.
As a continent that is familiar with pandemic outbreaks, Africa has a head start in the management of large-scale health crises. But the belief is that “emergency” cannot and should not constitute a mode of governance. Beyond the state of emergency, however, African leaders can and should propose to their societies a new political idea of Africa, says the letter.
In consequence, it continues, the coronavirus pandemic reveals the deficit of a collective continental response, both in the health and other sectors. More than ever, we call upon leaders to ponder the necessity to adopt a concerted approach to governance sectors related to public health, fundamental research in all disciplines and to public policy.
In the same vein, health has to be conceived as essential public good, the status of health workers needs to be enhanced, hospital infrastructure needs to be upgraded to a level that allows everybody, including leaders themselves, to receive adequate treatment in Africa. Furthermore, failure to implement these reforms would be cataclysmic. For it is in the most trying moments that new/innovative orientations must be explored and lasting solutions adopted.
Today, Africa comprises 54 sovereign countries, most of which have borders that were drawn during the era of European colonialism. In the 21st century, however, the number of armed conflicts in Africa has steadily declined.
The improved stability and economic reforms have led to a great increase in foreign investment in many African nations, mainly from China, which has spurred quick economic growth in many countries, seemingly ending decades of stagnation and decline. Africa is now at risk of being in debt once again, particularly in sub-Saharan African countries.
Although it has abundant natural resources, Africa remains the world’s poorest and least-developed continent, the result of a variety of causes that may include corrupt governments and policies fraught with dubious methods. Africa is the world’s second largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. With an estimated 1.3 billion people as of 2019, it accounts for about 16% of the world’s population.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Nigerian author, Ms Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, via her solicitors, has written to Euracare Multi-Specialist Hospital, Lagos, over the death of her 21-month-old son, Nkanu Nnamdi, seeking documentation of treatment before his untimely demise.
In a legal notice dated January 10, 2026, solicitors acting for the renowned author and her partner, Dr Ivara Esege, alleged that the hospital, its anaesthesiologist, and attending medical personnel breached the duty of care owed to their son, who died in the early hours of Wednesday, January 7, 2026.
The notice was issued on behalf of the parents by Pinheiro LP and signed by the founding partner, Prof Kemi Pinheiro (SAN).
According to the notice, the child was referred to the hospital on January 6, 2026, from Atlantis Pediatric Hospital for a series of diagnostic and preparatory procedures. These included an echocardiogram, a brain MRI, the insertion of a peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC line), and a lumbar puncture.
The procedures were reportedly part of preparations for an imminent medical evacuation to the United States, where a specialist medical team was said to be on standby to receive him.
The solicitors stated that intravenous sedation was administered using propofol.
However, it was alleged that during transportation to the cardiac catheterisation laboratory following the MRI procedure, the child allegedly developed sudden and severe complications.
Despite being under sedation, he was said to have been transferred between clinical areas under conditions that raised “serious and substantive concerns” about compliance with patient-safety protocols.
He was later pronounced dead in the early hours of January 7, 2026.
The legal notice outlines multiple alleged lapses in paediatric anaesthetic and procedural care.
These include concerns about the appropriateness and cumulative dosing of propofol in a critically ill child, inadequate airway protection during deep sedation, and an alleged failure to ensure continuous physiological monitoring.
The parents further alleged that their son was transferred without supplemental oxygen, without adequate monitoring, and without sufficient accompanying medical personnel.
They also raised concerns over the availability of basic resuscitation equipment, delayed recognition and management of respiratory or cardiovascular compromise, and an overall failure to comply with established paediatric anaesthesia, patient-transfer, and safety protocols.
Another major grievance cited was the alleged failure of the hospital to adequately disclose the risks and potential side effects of propofol and other anaesthetic agents, thereby undermining the legal requirement for informed consent.
According to the solicitors, these alleged lapses amount to prima facie breaches of the duty of care and render the hospital and all medical personnel involved liable for medical negligence resulting in the child’s death.
As part of their next legal steps, the parents demanded certified copies of all medical records relating to their son’s treatment within seven days of receipt of the notice.
The requested documents include admission notes, consent forms, pre-anaesthetic assessments, anaesthetic charts, drug administration records, monitoring logs, procedural notes, nursing observations, ICU records, incident reports, and the identities of all medical staff involved.
The demand also covers internal reviews, safety logs from the MRI suite, and any other documentation connected to the child’s care.
The hospital was also formally placed on notice to preserve all relevant evidence, whether physical or electronic.
This includes CCTV footage from procedure rooms and corridors, electronic monitoring data, pharmacy and drug inventory records, crash-cart and emergency equipment logs, as well as internal communications and any morbidity and mortality reviews.
The solicitors warned that “any destruction, alteration, or loss of such evidence after receipt of this letter shall be regarded as suppression or concealment of evidence and obstruction of the course of justice, and will be relied upon accordingly, with attendant legal consequences.”
The letter concluded with a warning that failure or refusal by the hospital to comply with the demands within the stipulated timeframe would leave the parents with no option but to pursue all available legal, regulatory, and judicial remedies against the hospital and all medical personnel involved.
Euracare Hospital had noted in a Saturday statement that it had commenced “a detailed investigation” into the incident in line with its clinical governance standards and best practices, while pledging to engage transparently and responsibly with all relevant clinical and regulatory processes.
Also, the Lagos State Government on Saturday said it began an investigation into the incident, vowing to ensure the full weight of the law is applied.
Speaking yesterday, the Special Adviser to the Lagos State Governor on Health, Dr Kemi Ogunyemi, said the doctor involved in the child’s procedure had been suspended by the hospital’s management, noting that the hospital was cooperating with the government in the investigation.
“The hospital itself is also doing its own internal investigation, and as far as we know, the anaesthesiologist involved has been suspended by the hospital,” she revealed.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Renowned Nigerian author, Ms Chinamanda Ngozi Adichie, has alleged that medical negligence was responsible for the death of her 21-month-old child.
The child, Nkanu, reportedly passed away on Wednesday, January 7, 2026, after a brief illness.
More details have emerged detailing the circumstances surrounding his death.
According to a leaked internal message sent privately to family members and close friends, Ms Adichie blamed a staff of Euracare Multi-Specialist Hospital, located in Victoria Island, Lagos, for causing the demise of the lad.
“My son would be alive today if not for an incident at Euracare Hospital on January 6th.
“We were in Lagos for Christmas. Nkanu had what we first thought was just a cold, but soon turned into a very serious infection and he was admitted to Atlantis hospital.
“He was to travel to the US the next day, January 7th, accompanied by Travelling Doctors. A team at Johns Hopkins was waiting to receive him in Baltimore. The Hopkins team had asked for a lumbar puncture test and an MRI. The Nigerian team had also decided to put in a ‘central line’ (used to administer iv medications) in preparation for Nkanu’s flight. Atlantis hospital referred us to Euracare Hospital, which was said to be the best place to have the procedures done.
“The morning of the 6th, we left Atlantis hospital for Euracare, Nkanu carried in his father’s arms. We were told he would need to be sedated to prevent him from moving during the MRI and the ‘central line’ procedure.
“I was waiting just outside the theater. I saw people, including Dr M, rushing into the theater and immediately knew something had happened.
“A short time later, Dr M came out and told me Nkanu had been given too much propofol by the anesthesiologist, had become unresponsive and was quickly resuscitated. But suddenly Nkanu was on a ventilator, he was intubated and placed in the ICU. The next thing I heard was that he had seizures. Cardiac arrest. All these had never happened before. Some hours later, Nkanu was gone
“It turns out that Nkanu was NEVER monitored after being given too much propofol. The anesthesiologist had just casually carried Nkanu on his shoulder to the theater, so nobody knows when exactly Nkanu became unresponsive.
“How can you sedate a sick child and neglect to monitor him? Later, after the ‘central line’ procedure, the anesthesiologist casually switched off Nkanu’s oxygen and again decided to carry him on his shoulder to the ICU!
“The anesthesiologist was CRIMINALLY negligent. He was fatally casual and careless with the precious life of a child. No proper protocol was followed.
“We brought in a child who was unwell but stable and scheduled to travel the next day. We came to conduct basic procedures. And suddenly, our beautiful little boy was gone forever. It is like living your worst nightmare. I will never survive the loss of my child.
“We have now heard about two previous cases of this same anesthesiologist overdosing children. Why did Euracare allow him to keep working? This must never happen to another child,” she wrote.
As of press time, it is not clear what the next line of action will be with the revelation.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The decision of the management of SUNU Health Nigeria Limited to adopt the strategy of placing the enrollee and customer at the heart of its operations has started to pay off.
The company was recently announced as Most Customer-Focused Health Insurance Company of the Year at the Customer Service Standard Magazine Awards 2025.
The recognition underscored the company’s success in translating its dedication into tangible enrollee satisfaction and superior market service at the Nigerian Health Maintenance Organisation (HMO) landscape.
It also highlights the organisation’s dedicated efforts in streamlining claims processing, enhancing access to quality healthcare providers, and maintaining transparent, responsive communication channels with its diverse client base across Nigeria.
The accolade further serves as a powerful testament to the successful integration of digital solutions and human-centric service models at SUNU Health.
It positions the firm as a leader not only in providing robust health plans but also in delivering the supportive, personalized care that enrollees truly value.
“Clinching the Most Customer-Focused Health Insurance Company of the Year award is not just an honour; it is a validation of the core philosophy that drives every member of the SUNU Health team.
“We believe that healthcare is fundamentally a service industry, and our success is measured by the well-being and satisfaction of our enrollees,” the chief executive of SUNU Health, Mr Patrick Korie, commented.
“This award reinforces our resolve to continuously innovate and set new benchmarks for customer experience in the Nigerian health insurance sector.
“Our commitment to providing accessible, high-quality, and seamless healthcare solutions remains our top priority as we move into the new year (2026),” he added.
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