Covid-19: WHO Investigating Reasons For Low Fatalities In Africa
The World Health Organization(WHO) says it is investigating the factors responsible for the low covid-19 cases and mortality rate in Africa.
WHO Africa Regional Director, Matshidiso Moeti, made this known in a media briefing on Thursday tagged “Is the worst of the COVID19 pandemic over in #Africa?”
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She noted that despite the low record of deaths , there was need to find out if Africans have covid-19 antibodies.
An antibody is a protective protein within the human immune system which fights toxic substance.
However, she noted that it was probable that the pandemic may be underreported in the continent.
“Studies are now underway to test if communities have antibodies for COVID19, meaning people were infected, but not detected. Some early results… suggest a higher number of infections than those reported.”
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“Although cases are being missed, this does not affect the deaths attributed to COVID19 in the Region. We are not seeing evidence of excess mortality due to COVID-19 or missing deaths,” she said.
“There are now more than 1.4 million reported COVID19 cases on the African continent and 34,000 people have sadly lost their lives,” she said.
More so, she said that previous investigation conducted by WHO revealed that many were not aware that they had covid-19 because they were asymptomatic.
“Our preliminary analysis suggests that over 80% of cases in African countries are asymptomatic… and this is reinforced by the fact that in most communities, health facilities have not been overwhelmed by severe COVID19 cases,” she said.
She also observed that the timely intervention of various governments in Africa gave their territories an edge over the surging pandemic that has now infected over 30 million people globally with over 900,000 deaths.
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She held that the quick ban on movements and gatherings helped a great deal.
“From March, Governments quickly implemented restrictions on movement and gathering and this created a window of opportunity to keep case numbers low and strengthen public health capacities.
“Overall, I really commend the response in African countries. We are making progress thanks to the concerted efforts of governments, communities and partners,” she said.
But, Moeti stressed that the Covid-19 was not yet over and as such there was need to keep strengthening preventive measures.
“Interpreting the COVID19 situation in the Region is complex, and requires a combination of metrics and tools…
“Even before the first cases were reported in Africa in February, at @WHO we were working with governments and partners to ramp-up preparedness and response capacities for COVID19 and other infectious diseases,” she said.
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Meanwhile, she called for a steady and robust approach by the relevant stakeholders so as to avoid a second wave as well as flattening the curve.
“Going forward, countries should continue to strengthen data and information, in implementing the key public health tools of surveillance, testing, isolation and contact tracing,” she said.
THE WHISTLER earlier reported that the founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, a health financier had in April, stressed that the weather condition in Nigeria may be restricting the covid-19 spread in the country.
“So far, developing countries like India and Nigeria account for a small portion of the reported global infections.
“With luck, some factors that we don’t understand yet, like how weather might affect the virus’s spread, will prevent large-scale infection in these countries, ” he said in one of his articles.
