Fighting COVID-19 in the West Africa after experiencing the Ebola epidemic

Abstract

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) dissemination occurred from December 2019 and quickly spread to all countries. Infected patients with COVID-19 have had a wide range of symptoms, ranging from mild to severe illness. The most mortality was observed in patients with underlying disease and over 45 years. World statistics have shown that the COVID-19 outbreak is most expanded in Middle Eastern, West Asian, European, North, and South American countries, and is least expanded in African countries. Therefore, the aim of the paper was the evaluation of six African countries including Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Guinea, Togo, and Djibouti to find why this disease is least expanded in African countries. Study was conducted by Questioner for countries health organizers to define their different aspect exposure and fight with COVID-19 including epidemiology, clinical aspects of the disease, case definitions, diagnosis laboratory confirmation, and referral of cases by the portal of entry, case management, and disease prevention in these countries. According to this opinion review, due to the low international flights and low domestic travel, the spread, and prevalence of COVID-19 was low and the return of the immigrants of these countries has caused the spread of COVID-19 among these countries. Experience, preparation, and impact of previous infections epidemic such as the Ebola virus epidemic would have beneficial, which have promoted certain reflexes among people that cause low dissemination in these countries.

Cross-sectional study of COVID-19 knowledge, beliefs and prevention behaviours among adults in Senegal

“…To explain our findings, we must consider lessons learnt from previous regional epidemics and how they relate to evolving social contexts (eg, norms, culture, population attributes), in particular Ebola 9. Many behaviours associated with preventing COVID-19 were already familiar to residents of African nations who experienced Ebola outbreaks, including hand washing, use of personal protective equipment and social distancing 44. COVID-19 in West Africa comes several years after the Ebola outbreak in 2014–2015, which tested the limits of the health systems and demonstrated its resilience.…”

Minimising COVID‐19 transmission cases: Do policies and institutions matter?

“…The results suggest that countries with higher incidence of tuberculosis tend to have lower infection cases whereas the infection is higher in countries that have greater population density. The finding that the higher the incidence of tuberculosis in a country the lower the infection cases captures the notion that countries with a previous history of infectious diseases tend to have some experience and relevant health infrastructure necessary to manage and contain infectious diseases, which would enable them to reduce the transmission of the COVID‐19 disease (Gholizadeh et al, 2021). Both the COVID‐19 virus and tuberculosis are infectious diseases that primarily attack the lungs and also have similar symptoms.…”

Improving testing capacity for COVID-19: Experiences and lessons from Senegal, Uganda, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo

“…Ethiopia increased its capacity to 7,600 tests per day after Abbott agreed to recon gure its closed platform to accommodate COVID-19 tests. This act by the Abbott laboratory was followed by universities and animal health laboratories [32]. However, this practice of reorienting materials initially allocated for other infectious diseases had a negative impact on the diagnosis of HIV and tuberculosis.…”