Scientists across the world are still puzzled by Africa’s low coronavirus deaths compared to the rest of the world Europe, for example where this is an agonizing story.
Just last week, Africa recorded a million cases and 23,000 fatalities.
Data on a study on antibody surveys shows that a huge percentage of Africans have contracted coronavirus but there are minimal deaths, a real mystery which immunologist Sophie Ugoya from Kenya Medical Research Institute-Wellcome Trust Research Programme attests to.
“We do not have an answer,” she said according to the Standard.
In Malawi for example, an antibody study on 500 asymptomatic health care givers showed that 12.3 per cent of them had been exposed to the coronavirus but, surprisingly, there were just 17 reported deaths at the times, contrary to what had been expected.
With a huge variance in antibody data and the number of reported deaths, it has emerged that Africa could seem lucky but in real sense, it misses out on more cases due to her low testing capacity.
In Kenya, for example, one person out of every 10,000 people is tested for the virus daily in a country with a population of 47 million people.
In Nigeria, one out of every 50,000 people is tested daily which is a small fraction of the number of people tested in Canada or Spain in a day out of this batch. However, the number of deaths are still low although one would expect a high number of deaths.
Marina Pollán of the Carlos III Health Institute in Madrid, who led Spain’s antibody survey says Africa low mortality rate is as a result of its “youthfulness” which ranges between 18 and 20.
Thumbi Mwangi, an epidemiologist at the University of Nairobi notes that young people are able to battle the virus.
Mwangi, however, warns that the number of deaths could go higher once the virus penetrates in the rural areas where there are more elderly people.
Additionally, there is a hypothesis that Africans have already been exposed to other types of coronavirus which has built their immunity towards this deadly strain.
The second hypothesis is that their exposure to malaria and other infectious diseases has strengthened their immune system.
Scientists across the world are still puzzled by Africa’s low coronavirus deaths compared to the rest of the world Europe, for example where this is an agonizing story.
Just last week, Africa recorded a million cases and 23,000 fatalities.
Data on a study on antibody surveys show that a huge percentage of Africans have contracted coronavirus but there are minimal deaths, a real mystery which immunologist Sophie Ugoya from Kenya Medical Research Institute-Wellcome Trust Research Programme attests to.
“We do not have an answer,” she said according to the Standard.
In Malawi for example, an antibody study on 500 asymptomatic health care givers showed that 12.3 per cent of them had been exposed to the coronavirus but, surprisingly, there were just 17 reported deaths at the times, contrary to what had been expected.
With a huge variance in antibody data and the number of reported deaths, it has emerged that Africa could seem lucky but in the real sense, it misses out on more cases due to her low testing capacity.
In Kenya, for example, one person out of every 10,000 people is tested for the virus daily in a country with a population of 47 million people.
In Nigeria, one out of every 50,000 people is tested daily which is a small fraction of the number of people tested in Canada or Spain in a day out of this batch. However, the number of deaths are still low although one would expect a high number of deaths.
Marina Pollán of the Carlos III Health Institute in Madrid, who led Spain’s antibody survey says Africa low mortality rate is as a result of its “youthfulness” which ranges between 18 and 20.
Thumbi Mwangi, an epidemiologist at the University of Nairobi notes that young people can battle the virus.
Mwangi, however, warns that the number of deaths could go higher once the virus penetrates in the rural areas where there are more elderly people.
Additionally, there is a hypothesis that Africans have already been exposed to other types of coronavirus which has built their immunity towards this deadly strain.
The second hypothesis is that their exposure to malaria and other infectious diseases has strengthened their immune system.
