Abstract
Corona virus disease 2019 (COVID-19) remains an incurable, progressive pneumonia-like illness characterized by fever, dry cough, fatigue, and headache during its early stages. COVID-19 has ultimately resulted in mortality in at least 2 million people worldwide. Millions of people globally have already been affected by this disease, and the numbers are expected to increase, perhaps until an effective cure or vaccine is identified. Although Africa was initially purported by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be severely hit by the pandemic, Africa recorded the least number of cases during the first wave, with lowest rates of infections, compared to Asia, Europe, and the Americas. This statistic might be attributed to the low testing capacity, existing public health awareness and lessons learnt during Ebola epidemic. Nonetheless, the relatively low rate of infection should be an opportunity for Africa to be better prepared to overcome this and future epidemics. In this paper, the authors provide insights into the dynamics and transmission of the severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus (SARS-CoV-2) during the first wave of the pandemic; possible explanations into the relatively low rates of infection recorded in Africa; with recommendations for Africa to continue to fight Covid-19; and position itself to effectively manage future pandemics.
Highlights
Africa fared well during the first wave of the Covid[19] Pandemic, since it was declared a global Pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 12, 2020 with Wuhan, China the epicentre of the virus disproportionately affected[1]
The authors provide insights into the dynamics and transmission of the severe acute respiratory syndrome corona virus (SARS-CoV-2) during the first wave of the pandemic; possible explanations into the relatively low rates of infection recorded in Africa; with recommendations for Africa to continue to fight Covid-19; and position itself to effectively manage future pandemics
The pandemic nature of Covid-19 and it is management, highlighted the success of Africa drawing on public health measures, despite limited modern health care systems
Summary
Africa fared well during the first wave of the Covid[19] Pandemic, since it was declared a global Pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO) on March 12, 2020 with Wuhan, China the epicentre of the virus disproportionately affected[1]. In November 2002, an outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) was reported to have started in Foshan in the Guangdong province of China 2. This epidemic lasted for approximately eight months and affected over 8,000 people worldwide, killing nearly 8003. Ed in the death of the affected individual[3] Another SARS outbreak originated in Wuhan (Hubei Province, China) in December 2019 and caused significant morbidity and mortality worldwide. Both SARS outbreaks were caused by corona viruses and have been designated SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 respectively for the 2002 and 2019 outbreaks. Infection with the virus (SARS-CoV-2), can be asymptomatic or can result in mild to severe symptomatic disease (COVID- 19) 5
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