Angolan President Joao Lourenço has called for increased vaccine and medicine production in Africa, warning that reliance on foreign imports is weakening the continent’s ability to respond to public health emergencies. His comments came during urgent virtual talks on Wednesday as a deadly cholera outbreak continues to spread across several African countries.
Locating medicine and vaccine production on our continent is critical to managing the cholera crisis and preparing for future health threats, Lourenço, who currently chairs the African Union, said.
“To ensure a strong and sustainable response to this and future crises, it is critical to locate medicine and vaccine production on our continent,” he said, adding that over-reliance on external sources “limits our response capacity and jeopardizes our health sovereignty.”
Dr. The meeting, which was also attended by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, comes at a time when Angola has confirmed more than 24,500 cholera cases and 718 deaths in 2025.
Cholera outbreaks are currently affecting several countries, including Angola, Sudan, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In Sudan alone, 172 cholera-related deaths were reported in just one week in late May, amid ongoing conflict that has weakened the health system.
According to an April report by the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), more than 90% of vaccines and essential medical products used on the continent are imported. The report highlighted how such dependency has hampered responses to past health emergencies such as COVID-19, Ebola and MPOX, and has left African countries vulnerable to supply disruptions, often caused by geopolitical tensions and trade bottlenecks.
The number of public health emergencies in Africa is also on the rise; It will increase from 152 in 2022 to 213 in 2024. This highlights the urgency of regional health self-sufficiency.