Some experts are concerned that so far Africa has not been able to verify enough, especially in hard-to-reach rural areas, and that its number of cases does not reflect the truth and does not prevent the virus from being traced.
“African countries are preparing to introduce large-scale and large-scale antigen-based immediate diagnostic tests, and this will be a game changer in the fight against COVID-19,” said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, Regional Director of the World Health Organization for Africa. “These immediate high-quality tests will help meet the huge unmet need for testing in Africa. “
Speaking from Brazzaville, Congo, at an online press conference, Moeti noted that the WHO African region, which adds up sub-Saharan Africa plus Algeria, has experienced a downward trend of more than 15,000 cases in July to less than 4,000 last month. urging some governments to withdraw from their maximum containment measures.
“While countries are easiing traffic restrictions, an increase is expected in some cases, however, it will surely save you exponential accumulation,” he said.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, officials at WHO headquarters in Geneva, and the Ethiopian Director-General of the United Nations fitness agency, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, expressed fear that COVID-19 could have a significant effect on weaker fitness systems. like those in Africa.
However, countries evolved with world-class fitness systems have been among those most affected by virus outbreaks. The Who Region of Europe of 54 countries counted 927,000 cases in its most recent weekly count, a new record.
Dr. Susan Ndidde Nabadda, director of uganda’s National Health Laboratory and Central Public Health Laboratory, warned that it would take some time to obtain appropriate approvals and a high-quality procedure before immediate diagnostic tests on a larger scale because “there is not much urgency” in Africa.
Nabadda cited reports that the identity of COVID-19 instances was greater in Guinea once the West African country began deploying THERS, noting that “we may see more numbers coming in” as the evidence unfolds more widely.
He said the relative lack of evidence in Africa could be just one reason why the number of cases in Africa decreased than in developed countries.
WHO announced last month that she and her key partners had agreed on a plan to implement 120 million immediate diagnostic tests for COVID-19 in low- and middle-income countries to close the detection gap with richer countries.
Immediate antigen-based diagnostic tests for which WHO has published an emergency use list aim to provide greater access to testing in spaces where it is more difficult to distribute PCR tests in many richer countries.
Rapid tests look for antigens or proteins discovered on the surface of the virus. They are sometimes thought to be less accurate, but much faster, than PCRs, which are high-quality genetic testing. PCR testing requires a solution with specialized laboratory equipment and chemicals. As a general rule, delivering results to the patient takes several days.
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