Why Does the U.S. Want Ghana's Health Data?

The Official U.S. Justification
According to the U.S. State Department, the America First Global Health Strategy is designed to "protect the homeland by preventing infectious disease outbreaks from reaching U.S. shores" and to "promote American health innovation around the world."

In plain terms, Washington argues that tracking diseases in Africa in real time helps the U.S. detect pandemic threats early before they spread globally. The agreements include provisions to fund the scale-up of partner governments' health data systems so that key programmatic data for HIV/AIDS, TB, malaria, polio, and disease outbreaks can be tracked at scale long-term.

Pathogen and Specimen Sharing
Critics say the data demands go much further than simple disease surveillance. Under a model specimen-sharing agreement seen by Health Policy Watch, upon request from the U.S. government, a participating country agrees to share specimen data within 5 days. The signing countries also consent to the U.S. government sharing that specimen and related data with up to ten non-U.S. government entities for the purpose of developing diagnostics and medical countermeasures, for a duration of 25 years.

Pandemic Surveillance and Global Competition
Some observers have argued that the America First Global Health Strategy template seeks to develop a parallel global surveillance system, bypassing the WHO's proposed Pandemic Agreement. Notably, the U.S. itself rejected the WHO's Pathogen Access and Benefit Sharing framework, arguing that such data sharing infringed on its own sovereignty yet it now demands similar sharing from African nations.

Commercial Interests
Analysts note that the United States wants access to African data to protect American citizens, but Africa's data is also commercially valuable. Critics argue that Africa's raw health data is effectively being "mined" in the U.S., commercially exploited, and then sold back to Africa at a price well above what the U.S. spent on its foreign health assistance.

While pharmaceutical companies would be free to develop medicines and technologies using African data, there is no guarantee that resulting benefits would be shared equitably. Civil society groups warn of "a repetition of the COVID-19 saga, when Africa was 'last in line' to receive medical tools developed from African data."

The Asymmetry Problem
A key feature of these bilateral agreements is that they are asymmetric. Under the agreement between the U.S. and Kenya, for example, Kenya must provide any information required for audits of up to 5% of randomly selected or designated health facilities, clinics, and laboratories. African nations get no equivalent audit rights over U.S. institutions.

Ghana's Specific Position
Ghana's President John Mahama has actually been one of the loudest African voices pushing back. He convened the Africa Health Sovereignty Summit in August 2025, where heads of state endorsed the Accra Initiative a declaration calling for a reconfigured global health order that embeds equity, national ownership, and sustainable financing at its core. Ghana rejecting the U.S. deal is therefore consistent with its own stated foreign policy principles.

The Bigger Pattern
Ghana is not alone. Zimbabwe and Zambia have already rejected similar proposals, while Kenya's agreement was suspended by a court over data-sharing concerns. The repeated breakdown of these negotiations across the continent signals that the data-sharing terms are a fundamental sticking point, not a minor technicality.

In summary, the U.S. frames the health data demand as pandemic preparedness and disease control. Critics and a growing number of African governments see it as a one-sided extraction of a sovereign national resource with commercial and strategic benefits flowing primarily to the United States.

Mustapha Bature Sallama.
Medical/ Science Communicator,
Private Investigator, Criminal investigation and Intelligence Analysis.
International Conflict Management and Peace Building.USIP
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