1. COVID-19 Pandemic: Is Africa Different?
- Author
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Shoyab Wadee, Oluwasegun Afolaranmi, Jesutofunmi A. Omiye, Anthony J.O. Were, Elliot Koranteng Tannor, Ebun L. Bamgboye, Mogamat Razeen Davids, Abdou Niang, and Saraladevi Naicker
- Subjects
Male ,Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) ,Population ,Pneumonia, Viral ,SARS-COV-2 virus ,World health ,03 medical and health sciences ,0302 clinical medicine ,COVID-19 Testing ,Chronic kidney disease ,Surveys and Questionnaires ,Health care ,Case fatality rate ,Pandemic ,Severity of illness ,Opinion Paper ,Humans ,030212 general & internal medicine ,APOL1 ,education ,Pandemics ,Demography ,Quality of Health Care ,education.field_of_study ,Travel ,030505 public health ,Cultural Characteristics ,business.industry ,SARS-CoV-2 ,Mortality rate ,COVID-19 ,General Medicine ,Acute Kidney Injury ,COVAN ,Geography ,Africa ,Communicable Disease Control ,Female ,0305 other medical science ,business - Abstract
COVID-19 has now spread to all the continents of the world with the possible exception of Antarctica. However, Africa appears different when compared with all the other continents. The absence of exponential growth and the low mortality rates contrary to that experienced in other continents, and contrary to the projections for Africa by various agencies, including the World Health Organization (WHO) has been a puzzle to many. Although Africa is the second most populous continent with an estimated 17.2% of the world's population, the continent accounts for only 5% of the total cases and 3% of the mortality. Mortality for the whole of Africa remains at a reported 19,726 as at August 01, 2020. The onset of the pandemic was later, the rate of rise has been slower and the severity of illness and case fatality rates have been lower in comparison to other continents. In addition, contrary to what had been documented in other continents, the occurrence of the renal complications in these patients also appeared to be much lower. This report documents the striking differences between the continents and within the continent of Africa itself and then attempts to explain the reasons for these differences. It is hoped that information presented in this review will help policymakers in the fight to contain the pandemic, particularly within Africa with its resource-constrained health care systems.
- Published
- 2021
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