Coronavirus: Africa Should Learn From Experiences Of Other Continents – Public Health Expert

A Nigerian Physician, Adaeze Oreh, has said that there’s an opportunity for Africa to explore amid the ongoing spread of coronavirus in the world.

Oreh said this during an interview on Coronavirus with Zimbabwean lifestyle coach, Makosi Musambasi.

The medical doctor spoke in detail on how COVID-19, which has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO), affects Africa.

According to her, COVID-19 presents an opportunity for the continent  to learn and  observe what’s happening in other continents and take lessons to better prepare “for what may not come but what still may come so let’s prepare ourselves in terms of seeing how we can slow the spread of the new coronavirus infection from person to person here in Africa.”

 “We’ve seen how over the past couple of months where cases have been increasing very rapidly in the West from Asia to Europe and the Americas.

“ Over this time the cases that have been introduced to Africa have been increasing slowly, so where we are now is that we have less than 300 cases across the entire continent and we are looking at tens of thousands of cases, in fact over a hundred thousand cases worldwide, yet we have less than 300 cases in Africa knowing the population that we have on the continent.

Oreh also said herd immunity may not be in view yet since Coronavirus was a novel disease, adding that the possibility of infected persons becoming immune to subsequent infections was uncertain.

Herd immunity is a medical terminology defined as  “a form of indirect protection from infectious disease that occurs when a large percentage of a population has become immune to an infection, whether through infection or vaccination, thereby providing a measure of protection for individuals who are not immune.”

She said, “It’s still too early for us to talk about herd immunity for these reasons one we don’t know that infection with the new coronavirus and coming down with COVID19 immunizes one against a subsequent infection we don’t know that yet because of the virus and how it interacts with the human body so still a bit early for us to know that and then vaccine trials are also underway so the first human trials for the vaccine should be taking place over the next couple of weeks.”

 She, however, urged the continent not to be afraid but be prepared to take actions to better react if it suddenly sees an upsurge of infections with coronavirus.

 “I think we should be afraid [of coronavirus], but we should be afraid such that we then prepare to change our behaviours to prevent infection on an individual and a family community basis. Let’s look at fear more positively.”

  Dr Adaeze Oreh is a Nigerian Family physician, Public health specialist and Universal health care advocate who is currently a Senior Medical Officer at the Department of Hospital Services in Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Health. She is a 2019 Aspen Institute New Voices Fellow.