The COVID-19 Pandemic and Explaining Outcomes in Africa: Could Genomic Variation Add to the Debate?

Abstract

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the etiological agent of COVID-19, emanated from the Wuhan Province in China and rapidly spread across the globe causing extensive morbidity and mortality rate, and affecting the global economy and livelihoods. Contrary to early predictions of “body bags” across Africa, the African COVID-19 pandemic was marked by apparent low case numbers and an overall mortality rate when compared with the other geographical regions. Factors used to describe this unexpected pattern included a younger population, a swifter and more effective national health policy, limited testing capacities, and the possibility of inadequate reporting of the cases, among others. However, despite genomics contributing to interindividual variations in many diseases across the world, there are inadequate genomic and multiomics data on COVID-19 in Africa that prevent richer transdisciplinary discussions on the contribution of genomics to the spread of COVID-19 pandemic. To invite future debates on comparative studies of COVID-19 genomics and the pandemic spread around the world regions, this expert review evaluates the reported frequency distribution of genetic variants in candidate genes that are likely to affect COVID-19 infection dynamics/disease outcomes. We propose here that genomic variation should be considered among the many factors determining the COVID-19 infection and its outcomes in African populations and across the world.

Examining the Role of Social Determinants of Health and Healthcare System Measures on COVID-19 Outcomes in 28 African Countries

“…We observed that countries in Africa have great variation in socioeconomic and COVID-19 health vulnerabilities. These results are likely related to a difference in the ability of countries to detect and test patients, limited PPE availability, the high prevalence of younger population, a lack of rapid and more effective national health policies, and the possibility of under reporting of cases and deaths (48). This finding was also reported in similar related studies (49,50,51).…”

SARS-CoV-2 at the Human–Animal Interface: Implication for Global Public Health from an African Perspective

“…Concurrently, factors intrinsic to the African population are being discussed to be causative for a lower morbidity and mortality on the continent, such as the general younger demographic of the population, lack of diagnosis in cases of deaths, genetic factors [108], the increased circulation of other coronaviruses having a protective effect against critical COVID-19 [108,109], or the higher burden of other infectious diseases such as malaria leading to an increased alertness of the innate immune system and consequently a lower morbidity and mortality [110].…”

Examining the Role of Social Determinants of Health and COVID-19 Risk in 28 African Countries

“…The factors contributing to these low death rates in Africa, despite a weak healthcare infrastructure, have drawn fierce debate and raised big questions among scholars and civic leaders [2][3][4][5][6]. Several hypotheses have been provided to support the low reported death rates and case fatality rates, such as low vaccine coverage and/or underreporting [7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16].…”