Low Fatality Rates: COVID-19 cases in Africa

The number of fatalities is 2.4%, with nearly 35,000 deaths in the more than 1.4 million people registered COVID-19 infection in Africa. The estimates in North America are 2.9%, whilst in Europe, 4.5% of the hard-hit countries such as Italy and the United Kingdom have reported deaths of 11.6% and 9.0% respectively, as against 1.6% in Ethiopia, 1.9% in Nigeria and 2.4% in South Africa, the most severely impacted region, respectively. The COVID-19 entry rates have dropped in several African countries. Experts suggest certain COVID-19 fatalities are likely to be skipped in Africa. The world’s lowest test rates of nearly 1.2 billion individuals on a continent, so many unrecorded fatalities of any sort. 

According to a South African Medical Research Council study in July, South Africa had some 17,000 natural deaths from the start of May to the end of mid-July, 59 per cent more than would usually be predicted. The COVID-19 mortality rate may be considerably greater than the government figure, according to analysts, currently over 16,000. 

However, it is generally accepted that fatality rates for COVID-19 were not as minimal as they had been anticipated. Scientists and specialists on public health cite a variety of potential causes, including the young population of the world and the experiences of past epidemic outbreaks. As many people largely separated from airports and other locations where they could come in touch with world travellers, African governments also had precious time to prepare.  Some scientists are still investigating the possibilities for regularly delivering a tuberculosis vaccine to children in several African countries to further minimise COVID-19 deaths. 

Some scientists are still investigating the possibilities for regularly delivering a tuberculosis vaccine to children in several African countries to further minimise COVID-19 deaths. Another hypothesis is why past exposure, including those triggering common cold, to other coronaviruses, has been the most susceptible in any of the same populations at any stage. The epidemic has reached Africa later in the world, allowing medical staff time to set up field facilities, oxygen supplies and fans and benefit from care changes elsewhere. 

One explanation may be that in many African countries foreign travel is scarce and travel in Germany may be tougher than on other continents. The governments of the continent have faced lethal infectious diseases, such as Ebola, which in 2013-16 infected more than 11,000 people in West Africa. The officials found then that the latest coronavirus travelled quickly earlier this year across the planet. Many countries in Africa were swift to enact airport inspection, suspension of strongly impacted countries’ airlines, and social dissociation acts and wear of masks. 

Kenya has registered its first case within a fortnight, the schools have been locked, incoming travellers have been required to endure quarantine and major meetings have been expelled. Nigeria, the most populated country in Africa, has instituted an inter-status and curfew moratorium on a flight. Since August 2019, much of the country’s boundaries have been locked to curb violence, which has helped battle the pandemic. Analysis has shown that age raises the likelihood of acquiring extreme COVID-19. 

A UN survey in 2019 suggested 62% and just 3% 65 or above of the population in sub-Saharan Africa. In the United Nations area Europe and America, 28% were younger than 25 and 18% were 65 years old and above. 

Scientists from different countries such as South Africa are studying the degree of cross-protection offered by the century-old vaccine Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG), commonly used throughout the continent against tuberculosis. In July, a report released in Proceedings from the National Academy of Sciences reported that the countries with higher vaccinations for tuberculosis had lower peak levels of mortality from COVID-19, the defence against other viral respiration disorders has been seen. 

Studies in South Africa and Zimbabwe have also begun to examine the effect on other coronaviruses of previous exposures. More than a fifth of the urban population of Africa is concentrated in slums where there is scarce access to water to wash hands and where physical distance is almost impossible. Under these circumstances, disease travels easily, although some scientists wonder whether in this situation this may have been an unintended bonus. There is some indication that after exposure to other popular coronaviruses, T cells established in the body’s immune system could help combat COVID-19.

Data Source: Reuters and The wire science