Winning the war against infectious diseases in Africa: Insights from COVID-19 and Monkey pox

In recent years, we have seen an increasing number of outbreak reports of various emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. Africa continue to be plagued with infectious diseases like HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, trachoma, Ebola, Lassa Fever, COVID-19 and monkeypox. It is therefore pertinent to draw lessons and insights from the most recent outbreaks to guide response strategies for the future. Stigmatization is a common challenge that has accompanied the outbreak of infectious diseases in time past. Antistigma framework should be incorporated into diseases outbreak preparedness and response across all countries to address the mental health consequences that accompany disease-related stigmatization. Furthermore, certain containment measures that have proven effective in mitigating against the spread of COVID-19 could be adopted for the prevention of other infectious diseases. The media plays an important role in the communication of health information during disease outbreaks and should be leveraged for disease prevention and control. It is high time we rose unitedly against the microbes who are ready to render the human race extinct.