The African Medical Body of Australia (AMBA) is organising a conference to help educate communities in Australia and in Africa about the COVID-19 vaccine.
The conference will take place online through Zoom this Saturday 12 June 2021 at 6PM Melbourne time (UTC +10)
Dr Kalumba Kongolo, AMBA’s current chair
Several medical experts from various technical and national backgrounds will speak about the COVID vaccine with the hope of providing clear information to the communities and help them take adequate action to protect themselves.
Doctor Kalumba Kongolo, AMBA’s chair and one of the main organisers of the conference told AMA that “the organisation is concerned that there is growing resistance against COVID-19 among Africans and there is a great risk that African communities in Australia and African countries who are already facing so many challenges fall behind and remain the hotspots for the disease for long time”
“We are organising this conference with the aim of providing available, adequate and accurate information as much as possible on COVID-19 vaccines targeting the health professionals and general public to help fight the misinformation”., he added.
To date, vaccine hesitancy remains quite high in Australia generally, and the rate is even higher in many migrant communities, especially in Culturally And Linguistically Diverse (CALD) groups.
While there may be many reasons why people are not taking the vaccine, there is no doubt that the high level of misinformation circulating through social media platforms poses a significant risk that many people might not be adequately protected against the virus.
In the US, African-Americans communities have been reported to have suffered a disproportionately high rate of mortality in relation to COVID-19. Some experts have linked this to the various social and health inequalities that these communities have experienced historically and continue to experience to date.
In Australia the number of deaths related to COVID has remained relatively low compared other advanced countries. However, there are no available statistics on the background of the victims to help shed light and determine whether African-Australian communities have registered more deaths or more severe cases of the disease in comparison to mainstream society.
Given that the third wave of the CoVID-19 infection is now affecting many cities both in Australian and in Africa, it is important for African-Australian community leaders, professionals and other influencers to help inform and educate people and empower them to take action to protect themselves against COVID 19.
Many African countries have experienced a relatively low number of victims so far, but there is no guarantee that this situation will remain the same, especially when the new variants of COVID (from South Africa and India) are reported to be more infectious.
AMBA was created in 2020 as an association of African Medical Professionals of African background, practising or training in Australia, with possibility of extending to medical students in the future.
The vision of the organisation is to be the leading organisation in unifying, advocating, supporting, and promoting the development of medical professionals of African descent practising in Australia.
Anyone interested in attending the conference can join through the following link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84069544797?pwd=SWN0cDI1aHc2Ukp3MFBhVUFEUERsUT09
More information on AMBA is available at : https://afrimba.org.au
