- About a thousand confirmed cases of Covid-19 are listed in forty African countries.
- Long spared by the coronavirus, these populations risk being badly affected because their health systems and their states are often fragile.
- Two NGO specialists present in these countries explain what the challenges are for these countries and how important international solidarity will be in the coming days.
These countries have so far been spared, but in reality they are likely to be the hardest hit. According to the most recent assessment, obviously brought to evolve, the African continent has 1,100 cases of coronavirus and 26 deaths in 40 countries. Uganda and Eritrea have joined the list of African countries that announced their first confirmed cases of Covid-19 last weekend. And Tanzania, Ethiopia, Mauritius and Kenya have reported additional cases.
From Burkina Faso, in West Africa, to Mauritius, off the east coast, governments have banned public gatherings and closed schools, churches, mosques, restaurants, bars and airports. Ethiopia has just announced that it is closing its borders. The World Health Organization (WHO) has been worried several times in recent days about a surge in the pandemic on the African continent, whose health systems are sorely under-resourced. But this is not the only reason that makes NGOs fear that the pandemic is very difficult to fight on the spot ...
A shooting window for tracking
Some countries currently only have a few cases. And screening is already underway. "There are more than 40 countries that can do RT-PCR tests," points out Alexandre Augier, director general of Alima, an NGO that works for health in twelve African countries. But in largely insufficient quantities. These countries will need trained personnel, reagent stocks and machinery. It is in this beginning of the epidemic that screening is essential.
"We have understood that it is very useful to test widely to isolate patients and their contacts in this first phase," analyzes Isabelle Defourny, director of operations at Médecins sans frontières. But in the African countries in which we work, the ministries explain to us that they hold between 500 and 1,000 tests. In South Korea, we did up to 20,000 tests a day…. Today, all the countries affected are wrestling with these precious tests. These NGOs hope that the tests currently produced in large quantities in the West may one day be useful for African countries, when the wave has passed through Europe and the United States.
Weakened health systems
A majority of these African countries will not have the means to contain the pandemic. "To reduce mortality in patients with coronavirus, it is necessary to have access to respiratory assistance," emphasizes Augustin Augier. However, in these countries, there is almost no capacity to provide them with the necessary care. In West Africa, there are twenty times fewer hospital beds than in France. In addition, there are almost no follow-up care services. "As for respirators, they number in the tens for millions of people ..." In Nigeria, there are only 250 resuscitation beds with mechanical respirators [France has 5,000], adds Isabelle Defourny. At least oxygen and protection (masks, gloves, glasses, gowns, etc.) are required for medical personnel. In all hospitals in Africa, there are protections, but with the Covid-19, the consumption of masks is multiplied by 10 or 20. Few hospitals have the sufficient stock to meet this increase in needs. Otherwise, caregivers will fall ill, and the health system may be further paralyzed.
However, hospitals are already struggling. In addition to multiple wars and violence, some African countries are already struggling with several deadly diseases. "Health systems must manage all other pathologies: malnutrition, malaria, measles, obstetric emergencies," recalls the director of Alima. Especially since NGOs are finding it increasingly difficult to transport medicines, doctors, food, with air transport stopped in some countries. And closing borders. MSF, for its part, is negotiating so that it can send adequate material to certain countries.
No means to confine
Some countries, Rwanda and Nigeria for example, are beginning to put in place measures to isolate the sick with financial assistance. What is not obvious everywhere. "Imposing total containment is impossible in economies where most people eat in the evening what they have earned during the day," continues Alexandre Augier. Because they have no resources to survive, neither savings nor wealth. In France, in the United States, the State is present with measures such as partial unemployment, work stoppages for childcare. A number of African countries are too poor to implement this state protection. "
This is why the director of the NGO calls for a great movement of international solidarity.
"A necessary solidarity"
The challenge is immense at a time when many western countries are facing the greatest health crisis in a hundred years. And the economic disaster promises to be major. Will France, Italy and the United States be prepared to send masks, tests, human and financial resources to support African countries?
“It is necessary for three reasons, list Alexandre Augier. First on a human and humanitarian level: we cannot accept that a continent collapses and that mortality explodes. Furthermore, if we cannot control the epidemic while it is circulating on a continent like Africa, it will be reintroduced here. Finally, for a third reason, geopolitics this time. The epidemic can contribute to the destabilization of certain regions. For example, in the Sahel, armed groups will not stop during the coronavirus ... ”
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- Covid 19
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- Africa
- South Africa