ABSTRACT
As many parts of the world continue to eliminate diseases, the African continent remains a reservoir of infectious diseases. Though the current COVID-19 pandemic originates from another continent, its impacts have adversely affected the socioeconomic lives of Africans. This book chapter examines the state of infectious diseases and pandemics in Africans. Methodologically, the authors of this chapter adopted multiple approaches comprising critical review of existing literature, cases, and analysis of secondary data collected from the databases of organisations such as The World Bank, Global Infrastructure Initiative Hub, and Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The chapter proposes seven key measures that African countries can adopt to mitigate the impacts of future pandemics in Africa, some of which include measures for mitigating the impacts of pandemics in Africa, including restructuring of construction Procurement; digitisation; accelerated infrastructure development; and industry-academia collaboration.
