Dr Victor Bampoe, a former Deputy Health Minister, has assigned reasons to the continent’s few recorded cases of the novel Covid-19 virus.
In an analogy with viruses such as SARS and H1N1 which became widespread in China and other parts of the world, but less prevalent in Africa just as is the case of the coronavirus, Dr Bampoe said according to the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the Africa Report, Africa’s limited connection to the rest of the world is the main factor for the low prevalence rate of the disease on the continent.
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According to him, WHO and Africa Report believes the virus is simply following ‘economic routes.
“Its a question of economics. All we need to do is to go back to history. In 2002 – 2003, SARS entered Africa five months after it spread in China. South Africa was the 17th country in the world to report. No other country in Africa reported a case thereafter. In 2009, H1N1 reached 60 countries outside of Africa before Egypt reported it’s first case two months after its initial discovery in Mexico.
“H1N1 eventually spread to 41 African countries. Why? Africa is simply less connected to the rest of the world. We get only 5% of global tourism, and only 4% of China’s tourists. Although Chinese workers also come to Africa, compared to numbers that go to other parts of the world, it is insignificant,” he said.
In 2017, only 16% of the total number of Chinese workers that went abroad to deliver projects came to Africa, and 23% of those went to one country – Algeria. The virus is following economic routes,” he noted.
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He added that, WHO and Africa Report believes the continent’s less connectivity with the rest of the world is advantageous to the continent as it provides countries on the continent the period to adequately prepare for the disease.
Dr Bampoe further advised the health ministry and Ghanaians to prepare for the disease.
“We’ve been given a break to prepare ourselves, so let’s stop speculating why we (Ghanaians) haven’t had cases yet, and continue to beef up our preparations. Today its corona, tomorrow it might be something else,” he said.