Artificial Intelligence for Africa: Bridge or Barrier for Infectious Disease Control?

• The promise of artificial intelligence (AI) for global health risks becoming a structural barrier in Africa if linguistic and cultural exclusion persists. • Dominant AI systems, trained on non-African languages, perform poorly in many local languages, widening health inequalities in infectious disease surveillance and control. • Locally developed, language-specific AI tools demonstrate superior performance in health communication compared to imported, non-contextualized models. • Creating effective AI for health in Africa requires investment in local data ecosystems, digital infrastructure, and participatory, epistemically just design. • Africa's linguistic diversity represents a strategic opportunity for innovation in cross-border disease surveillance and South-South technological collaboration.