The weather patterns in Africa could be the reason for the low COVID-19 death rates on the continent over the last two years.
The continent has recorded some of the least number of deaths compared to other regions. According to data by the World Health Organisation-WHO, Africa has reported 11.4 million cases of COVID-19, with over 10 million recoveries and 251,000 deaths in the last two years.
While scientists from developed countries had predicted doom for Africa- which is believed to have poor health systems, COVID-19 reports from the continent show it has reported fewer cases and deaths compared to other continents with better hospital systems.
Since the first recorded death in 2020, a whopping 1,883,711 people have died from COVID-19 in Europe, with countries such as France recording as many as 140,000 deaths. This is almost double the number of deaths recorded in South Africa- which has reported the highest number of COVID-19 deaths on the continent.
Dr Monica Musenero, Uganda’s Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation says that while it’s true that African countries have been under testing, this does not account for the low number of deaths that have been reported on the continent. She however lists the weather as one of the factors that favoured the continent.
Research shows that in countries where cold winters are experienced, many cases of the disease were reported compared to countries with no winter. For instance, some countries like the US where some states can have temperatures as low as -16.3 degrees centigrade have reported more cases than African countries that have warmers weather.
In addition to the above, the demographic pattern found in many African countries might have played a role. Musenero says that more people live in rural areas compared to urban parts of countries. This she explains led to the disease being centred in congested urban areas while rural areas with bigger populations reported very fewer cases.
Similarly, Dr Misaki Wayengera, the head of the ministerial Scientific COVID-19 Committee says most of the countries that reported high cases of COVID-19 are very urbanized which helps in spreading the disease.
“COVID-19 is a disease of urbanity. Urbanisation is responsible for the widespread distribution of COVID-19. Africa is not very urbanised. Consider Uganda, urbanisation is around Kampala and a few towns. But you know people living in towns will take months without interacting with those in villages.
As a matter of fact, the level of urbanisation and globalisation can clearly be mapped out by the number of COVID-19 cases they have had. For example, South Africa, Algeria, Morroco and Egypt are very urbanised and as such have had high cases of COVID because their population can easily fly in and out of the country which can spread the disease,” he said.
Another factor that Ugandan scientists believe helped African countries is the strong public health system. Dr Musenero says that while African countries might not have good hospitals, they have strong public health systems that work toward preventing the spread of diseases instead of focusing on treating diseases. The formation of many of these public schools of health has been possible by developed countries.
The reason for few cases of COVID-19 and deaths will likely remain a cause of debate for a while. Dr Musenero says instead of attaching negativity to it such as the continent cannot carry out adequate testing, the few deaths should be celebrated.
Uganda has recorded 3,605 deaths so far.
