JOHANNESBURG — An Africa-wide study of antibodies to the coronavirus has begun, while evidence from a smaller study indicates that many more people have been infected than official numbers show, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.
Experts are eager to learn about the actual number of COVID-19 cases in Africa, as cases and deaths have been shown to have been low on the continent of 1.3 billion people. However, poor knowledge collection has confusing efforts.
But recent surveys in Mozambique found antibodies — proteins the body makes when an infection occurs — to the virus in 5% of households in the city of Nampula and 2.5% in the city of Pemba. That’s while Mozambique has just 2,481 confirmed virus cases. Further studies are underway in the capital, Maputo, and the city of Quelimane.
“What happens is that far fewer people get the disease,” CDC Africa director John Nkengasong told reporters. “How many other people are swollen and asymptomatic on our continent? We don’t know.”
The young African population, with an average age of 19 years, was described as an imaginable factor.
The new continental antibody study will come with all African countries, but those that will show interest in starting in the coming weeks are Liberia, Sierra Leone, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Cameroon, Nigeria and Morocco, Nkengasong said.
The African continent reached the mark of one million instances last week, while global fitness experts told The Associated Press that the actual figure is estimated several times. There have been more than 24,000 deaths and the fatality rate is 2.2%.
Antibody research in Mozambique has detected the virus in all neighborhoods of Nampula and Pemba, journalists were told by The Director of the National Institute of Health, Ilesh Jani.
The most popular equipment was market vendors with 10%, followed by fitness professionals between 5.5% and 7%, the policy between 3.7% and 6%, and retail and other corporate workers between 5% and 5.5%.
“We don’t know why more people aren’t hospitalized,” Jani said. “In Nampula, we thought we would see more mortality,” but there is no accumulation of deaths.
He wondered whether the low mortality rate would continue or whether the disease would “be more aggressive.”
In a separate survey, researchers in Kenya who tested more than 3,000 blood donors said one in 20 people may have antibodies to the virus. There are more than 28,000 instances displayed in the country.
But the director of CDC Africa warned, “Sampling was not a very systematic sampling and we will have to interpret it with caution.”
Nkengasong also said that the African CDC had not contacted Russia about the COVID-19 vaccine announced this week. The African fitness government needs any viral intervention they seek to “be backed by smart science,” he said, adding that “we are open to all partnerships.”