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CORONAVIRUS – It was in Egypt on February 14, 2020 that the first case of Covid-19 was identified in Africa. However, six weeks later, on the African continent, at least 6,500 people were identified as infected for 237 deaths.
These figures, which are low compared to other continents, are explained by various factors: such as the lack of international mobility towards this region or the presence of a young population which is generally more resistant to this type of virus. But conversely, it is a fragile population for various reasons.
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Coronavirus – Africa: African Union Member States reporting COVID-19 cases @AfricaCDC
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First, there are few trips from Europe or China to Africa. Yannick Jaffré, medical anthropologist and researcher at the CNRS, explains at HuffPost: “For example, the war in the Sahel has led to a huge drop in tourism in West Africa”. The majority of travel in Africa takes place within the continent.
On this point, a study of February 20, 2020, published in the scientific journal The Lancet, worked on the volume of air travel departing from the airports of the infected provinces in China and directed to Africa between January 2019 and February 2020. They then deduced that Algeria, Egypt and Africa South would be the countries hardest hit. It turns out that this Thursday, April 2, it is the three countries with the highest number of cases (847, 779 and 1380 confirmed cases respectively).
This shows that the coronavirus is very dependent on the mobility of people to spread around the world, and that containment measures are able to counter this epidemic.
40% of Africans are under 15
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In Africa, many cases of Covid-19 may go unnoticed for certain factors. Yannick Jaffré explains: “40% of the African population is under 15 years of age and when faced with the disease they are more resistant and more often than not asymptomatic”.
But even if the population is very young, it remains vulnerable. Arnaud Banos, geographer and research director at CNRS explains to HuffPost: “For HIV, two thirds of carriers live in Africa and for tuberculosis, a quarter of new cases appear in Africa”. These people will be more vulnerable to coronavirus. For the researcher, African countries must do as much screening as the WHO advice to prevent the development of the disease. This could allow states to break the chain of contamination.
In addition, implementing containment measures will be complicated. On this point, Yannick Jaffré declares: “Containment is going to be something difficult for a part of the population which earns money from day to day to feed themselves”. In addition, some African megalopolises have a very high population density which makes this confinement even more complicated.
An often poorly prepared health system
In terms of health, not all African countries are housed in the same boat. Many are dependent on aid from NGOs, the United Nations, or other states. But this can be problematic.
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First, access to water and soap is problematic for part of the African population. Without this, it is almost impossible to put in place effective hygiene measures. In addition, most of the respirators that hospitals have are donations, so the question of their maintenance will be problematic. They often do not have spare parts.
Another issue is people’s confidence in their governments and their health systems. Yannick Jaffré reports: “We have seen in the context of Ebola, that people do not trust their leaders.” In some cases, families prefer to keep the patient at home rather than taking him to the hospital.
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In addition, in some countries, populations favor “short circuits”. They will rather buy drugs from street vendors than go to the doctor, get a prescription and go to the pharmacy. It will therefore be difficult to identify the cases of Covid-19 in the various countries.
Despite everything, the coronavirus is still little developed in Africa because of different causes. Temperatures and climate may also be factors, but researchers lack data to be sure. What is certain is that if the epidemic develops in Africa, the consequences could be significant for the populations.
See also on The HuffPost: Coronavirus: are all disinfection techniques effective?
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