A Dissymmetry in the Figures Related to the Covid-19 Pandemic in the World: What Factors Explain the Difference Between Africa and the Rest of the World?

Abstract

Humanity has experienced outbreaks for millennia, from epidemics limited to pandemics that have claimed many victims and changed the course of civilizations. The advent of vaccines has eradicated some of the serious pathogens and reduced many others. However, pandemics are still part of our modern world, as we continue to have pandemics as devastating as HIV and as alarming as severe acute respiratory syndrome, Ebola and the Middle East respiratory syndrome. The Covid-19 epidemic with 0-exponential contamination curves reaching 3 million confirmed cases should not have come as a surprise, nor should it have been the last pandemic in the world. In this article, we try to summarize the lost opportunities as well as the lessons learned, hoping that we can do better in the future. The objective of this study is to relate the situation of Covid-19 in African countries with those of the countries most affected by the pandemic. It also allows us to verify how, according to the observed situation, the African ecosystem seems to be much more resilient compared to that of other continents where the number of deaths is in the thousands. To verify this, the diagnosed morbidity and mortality reported for different states of the world are compared to the ages of life and the average annual temperature of these states. The results show that the less dramatic balance of the African continent compared to other continents is partly linked to the relatively high temperatures on the continent but also to the relatively young character of its population.

Addressing Africa’s pandemic puzzle: Perspectives on COVID-19 transmission and mortality in sub-Saharan Africa

“…As humans continue to transform their environments, emerging diseases and their global spread will be one of the grand challenges that countries will face over the coming decades. To counter these rising problems, countries around the world will need to consider serious investment in science and health care infrastructure, improved testing capacity, and therapeutic solutions ( Faye et al, 2020 ). Equally as important, building social welfare and protection ( e.g.…”

“…Therefore, in situations where there may be high infection rates within younger age groups, these individuals can be either asymptomatic or have a greater capacity to overcome the disease ( Diop et al, 2020a , Diop et al, 2020b ). It is important to note that in Italy—one of the countries hit hardest by SARS-CoV-2—23.1 per cent of its population is age 65 and over ( Faye et al, 2020 , Kondō, 2010 , Renzaho, 2020 ), giving some support to the notion that the age structure of African countries may reduce the risk for severe COVID-19.

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