The Impact on Public Health and Economy Using Lockdown as a Tool against COVID-19 Pandemic in Africa: A Perspective

Abstract

Background: Since the spread of Corona Virus Disease 19 most African countries have embarked on a system of either total or partial lockdown and have used it as a tool for curbing the spread of COVID-19. This study examines whether lockdown can be of help and whether it is any of the public health policies that can bring massive and tremendous change to health systems and general economy of African countries using it as a way of intervention to curb the spread of COVID-19. Method:The researchers reviewed some literature about world economies with Google as the main search tool. They also listened to press conferences, editorial reviews from the African Union, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and the World Health Organization. Interviews were also done through phone calls, questions asked via emails to some of the world's leading epidemiologists, infectious disease specialists in the United States of America, Europe, Africa, and some of the listed countries in their work.Results: After a careful study and analysis of countries like Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan who did not really make lock down as a major measure in fighting the COVID-19 disease still saw a stable economy, a drastic containment of the pandemic, few deaths and more recoveries as compared to countries in Africa like south Africa which is the worst affected African country,

Herbal used as Epigenetic for Cancer Treatment

“…The profiling of miRNA expression, which links to the course of disease [47], can yield information that can be used as potential diagnostic and prognostic markers for malignant pancreatic illness. According to the findings of a retrospective study that screened 2549 human miRNAs in patient serum [48], patients who had shorter survival periods had lower levels of survival-related differentially expressed miRNAs compared to those who had longer survival times. [Citation needed] In addition, high levels of hsa-miR-486-5p and hsa-miR-6126 expression were associated with long-term survival, but high levels of hsa-miR-3135b expression were associated with poor outcomes.…”

Urban health nexus with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) preparedness and response in Africa: Rapid scoping review of the early evidence

“…In view of the huge informal sector in Africa, the 'work from home' policy at the initial phase of the pandemic rather worsened the plight of many citizens already in the lower wealth quintiles. 44,[56][57][58] Other COVID-19 mitigating measures questioned and heavily criticised in Africa are mass closure of schools without established e-learning systems and infrastructure, enforcement of handwashing protocols when over 50% of households in Africa do not have access to portable water, 51 temperature checks of travellers at borders and airports without accounting for asymptomatic carriers of the virus and mass testing capacities coupled with ability to pay for COVID-19 testing upon arrival at airports. Moreover, many countries in Africa are still battling fearbased messaging and misinformation on COVID-19 59 similar to Ebola and HIV/AIDS.…”

“…There are equally fears of imminent post-COVID 19 negative impact on African economies with a possible gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate dropping to record low of single digits. 23,36,44,46 Finally, evidence adduced by Biccard et al 31 on a relatively higher case mortality in critically ill COVID-19 African patients than any other regions in the world suggests the urgent need to resource healthcare facilities in Africa to improve on the quality of healthcare for COVID-19 victims. Biccard et al, 31 for instance, found that there is an excess mortality of 18 and 29 deaths per 100 COVID-19 African patients compared to other parts of the world with an even worrying evidence of a positive correlation between COVID-19-related mortalities and limited critical care resources.…”

Deciphering the COVID-19 Health Economic Dilemma (HED): A Scoping Review

“…Naturally, the discourse surrounding social distancing policies and the impacts on the economy and health are considered in reference to various approaches undertaken by many countries. While cultural and additional differences such as socioeconomic status, political climate, etc., must be taken into consideration when doing cross-country comparison, approaches fall on a spectrum between limited containment measures, to drastic lockdowns, with most countries found somewhere in between these extremes [66,[75][76][77][78][79][80]. Ostling (2020) [78] discusses these two extremes as Sweden and New Zealand, with Sweden's model illustrating the former extreme and New Zealand the latter.…”

“…Policy divergence in terms of a "Stringency Index" is also presented by Koyama and Desierto (2020) [77] between Brazil and Argentina, Denmark and Sweden and the United Kingdom and the United States. Lastly, Nyarko et al (2020) [79] compare African containment policies to styles of containing COVID-19 in Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan. While the optimal policy is still unclear and it is not yet understood whether certain governments overreacted or underreacted as compared to others, several papers suggest that clear health and economic advantages exist for approaches which aimed to eliminate the virus quickly while rapidly reopening the economy.…”