1) Lower respiratory tract infections (10. 4% of deaths): 916,851
(2) HIV/AIDS (8. 1 per cent): 718,800
3) Diarrhoeal diseases (7. 4%): 652,791
4) Ischaemic heart disease (5.8%):511,916
5) Malaria (4.6%)408,125
6) TB (4.6%):405,496
Thus, the continent’s governments are already programmed to respond to new demanding public health situations such as Ebola or Covid-19.
That’s why they didn’t hesitate at the beginning of the epidemic.
As other countries dabbled with herd immunity, kept their airports wide open, or merely encouraged their citizens to avoid the pub, African states were busy implementing strict lockdowns and re-training their vast standing armies of community health workers.
But the question now – for South Africa and the rest of the continent – is whether this sense of vulnerability can help sustain a much more durable and effective fight against the virus, as evidenced by the evidence – from Nigeria to South Sudan and beyond – now. It turns out to show that Africa’s early successes arguably would have only (and usefully) delayed Covid-19, rather than contained it.
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Students at this Kenyan university are making medical kits on a voluntary basis.
The latest projections from experts on a team here in Johannesburg imply that the virus – despite a drastically reduced infection curve – will continue to kill more than 40,000 South Africans and will most likely peak only sometime in the second part of July.
At the same time, the severe economic damage caused by the early lockdowns is beginning to test the patience and the coping mechanisms of communities and governments which lack the deep pockets of Western nations.
Possible options and extremely complicated battles lie ahead.
It is not a question of “catastrophizing” Africa.