ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND THE FUTURE OF PUBLIC HEALTH SURVEILLANCE IN AFRICA AND THE EU

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the landscape of public health surveillance across the world, allowing real-time detection of diseases, prediction of outbreaks, and data-based response. While the EU has progressed considerably in ensuring AI integration by establishing a strong digital infrastructure, regulatory frameworks (e.g., General Data Protection Regulation, GDPR, and the EU AI Act), Africa still experiences major setbacks, such as poor infrastructure, little AI literacy, and lacking legal and ethical frameworks. Based on the current literature, the paper has studied the role of AI technologies, especially machine learning and natural language processing, in supporting real-time health monitoring. The analysis reveals that in as much as the EU presents a model through which effective and ethical integration of AI can be achieved, the Africa region lags in developing the digital health ecosystems to facilitate the full potential of AI. The study proposes to close this gap by shoring up regulatory systems, investing in digital plumbing, advancing AI literacy, investing in privacy-preserving technologies and multilateral engagement. The need to level these discrepancies is critical to the resilience of public health in the region as well as to the global health equity in the era of smart technologies.