The UN agency is concerned about the weakness of the African continent’s health systems in the event of massive contamination. For the moment, only one case has been recorded.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that health systems in Africa are ill-equipped to respond to the coronavirus epidemic if cases of contamination appear and multiply on the continent.
During a meeting of health ministers of African Union (AU) countries in Addis Ababa on Saturday, February 22, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on AU countries to ” come together to be more aggressive” in the fight against Covid-19 coronavirus disease. “Our main concern continues to be the potential for dissemination of Covid-19 in countries with more precarious health systems, ” said the WHO chief in a video link from Geneva. So far, Egypt is the only country in Africa to register a confirmed case of contamination on February 14 officially.
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More than 200 suspected cases identified in countries in the WHO African region, most of the continent, but almost all were negative, said the director of the regional office for Africa, Matshidiso, on Saturday. Rebecca Moeti.
But if the Coronavirus began to spread across the continent, health systems will need to support patients with symptoms such as respiratory failure, septic shock, or the simultaneous failure of several organs, noted Mr. Tedros: “These patients require intensive care requiring equipment like breathing apparatus that is lacking in many African countries, and this is cause for concern. “
AU Commission Chair Moussa Faki Mahamat called on African officials to “take drastic preventive and control measures,” as Africa is particularly vulnerable “because of its relatively poor health systems.”
“Imminent threat.”
The challenge for African countries is also to develop the capacity to carry out screening tests. In three weeks, the number of African countries able to perform tests to detect the Coronavirus is from two to 26, said M me Moeti.
John Nkengasong, director of the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told AFP that the number of African countries able to carry out these tests would soon exceed 40. However, he warned, if cases of contamination appeared in large quantities, African countries could face shortages of screening kits and protective equipment such as masks. If the Coronavirus were to spread to the African continent, the ability to establish a diagnosis quickly would be limited. “We are facing an imminent threat, a serious threat, ” said John Nkengasong.
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WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said 30,000 personal protection kits had shipped to “several countries in Africa” and that 60,000 tests would be sent to 19 countries “in the coming weeks.” He also said that Mr. Nkengasong and Samba Sow, director general of the Center for Vaccine Development in Mali, had been appointed special envoys for the mobilization against COVID-19 on the continent. Their mission will be to provide “strategic advice” and to advocate for the fight against Coronavirus in Africa “at a high level.”
Several African airlines, including Kenya Airways, have suspended their flights to China, but the primary airline on the continent, Ethiopian Airlines, has maintained its own. Liu Yuxi, Chinese ambassador to the AU, called on African officials to ease travel restrictions. “Excessive panic could increase the disease,” he said.