For decades, Africa has often arrived late to major scientific revolutions. We missed much of the Industrial Revolution. We depended on others for medicines, vaccines, technologies, and advanced manufacturing.
Even during the digital revolution, many African countries entered as consumers rather than builders. Now, another major transformation is taking place, and this time it is happening in medicine.
Around the world, healthcare is becoming more precise, more predictive, and more personalised. Doctors are increasingly using genetic information to better understand diseases, guide treatments, predict drug reactions, and identify patients at risk earlier than before.
What once sounded like distant futuristic science is slowly becoming part of mainstream healthcare systems. The question for Africa is simple: will we help shape this future, or will we once again arrive after the systems, technologies, and rules have already been built by others?
WHO’s landmark decision
This is why the recent decision by the World Health Assembly matters so much. In May 2026, countries at the World Health Organisation endorsed a landmark resolution on precision medicine.
Whilst technical in appearance, the message behind the resolution is profound: the world has now formally recognised that genomics and precision medicine are becoming part of the future of healthcare.
This did not happen suddenly. Over the past several years, the WHO has repeatedly raised concerns that genomic medicine is expanding unevenly across the world. In 2022, it warned against a future where only wealthy nations benefit from advances in genomics.
In 2024, it released new principles for ethical genomic data collection and sharing. In 2025, it published a global analysis showing that African populations remain significantly underrepresented in genomics research despite Africa containing the greatest human genetic diversity in the world.
The warning signs are clear. If Africa remains absent from the science shaping future medicine, then future diagnostic tools, medicines, and artificial intelligence systems may increasingly be designed using data from populations elsewhere.
The consequences may not be immediately visible, but over time they will matter deeply. Countries that do not participate in building the future of medicine risk becoming permanently dependent on knowledge generated outside their borders.
Sovereignty
This is not simply a scientific issue. It is a question of preparedness, equity, and sovereignty. For Tanzania, this conversation comes at an important moment. Our country is facing a growing burden of cancer, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, sickle cell disease, and other chronic illnesses.
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At the same time, many Tanzanian families still spend years searching for diagnoses for rare conditions that remain poorly understood. Across our hospitals, doctors continue to face situations where patients respond very differently to the same medicines, often without clear explanations.
Medicine is changing because science is beginning to better understand these differences. Importantly, Tanzania is not starting from zero. Across universities, hospitals, and research institutions, Tanzanian scientists and healthcare professionals have already begun building important foundations in molecular diagnostics, genomics, and precision medicine.
Emerging national discussions and initiatives focused on understanding Tanzania’s genetic diversity show that local expertise, ambition, and scientific leadership already exist within the country.
What preparation requires
What is needed now is a national vision. Tanzania should not wait until precision medicine becomes commonplace elsewhere before beginning to prepare. By then, the gap may already be too wide.
Preparing does not mean building luxury hospitals or importing expensive technologies overnight. It means making deliberate long-term investments in areas that will shape healthcare over the next several decades.
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It means strengthening laboratories, supporting local scientific research, expanding digital health systems, training healthcare professionals, building expertise in data science and bioinformatics, and developing strong ethical frameworks that protect Tanzanian patients and Tanzanian data.
Most importantly, it means ensuring that African populations are represented in the discoveries that will shape future healthcare. Africa cannot continue contributing samples and patients to global science whilst remaining absent from decision-making, innovation, and ownership. That model is no longer sustainable.
Beyond medicine
Countries that invest early in science and technology often gain more than medical progress alone. They strengthen education systems, research institutions, economic competitiveness, and national resilience.
Biotechnology, genomics, and artificial intelligence are rapidly becoming part of the global economy of the future. Nations that fail to prepare risk finding themselves dependent not only medically, but also economically and scientifically as well.
This is why the WHO resolution should not be viewed as a distant scientific discussion happening in Geneva. It should be understood as an early signal of where global healthcare is heading. The future of medicine is being built now. Africa still has an opportunity to help shape it. Tanzania still has an opportunity to prepare for it.
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But opportunities in science do not wait forever. Countries that move early often define the future. Those who move late are forced to adapt to systems designed by others.
Tanzania should not enter the next era of medicine merely as a consumer of other people’s knowledge. We should enter it prepared, represented, and ready to contribute to the future of healthcare in Africa and beyond.
Dr Mohamed Zahir Alimohamed is a molecular geneticist, lecturer, and researcher at the Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, where he works in the fields of human genetics, genomics, and precision medicine. He can be reached at mohamed.alimohamed@muhas.ac.tz or on X as @mzahir89. The opinions expressed here are the writer’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of The Chanzo. If you are interested in publishing in this space, please contact our editors at editor@thechanzo.com.
