By March 31, Africa had 5,431 confirmed cases of COVID-19 , with almost a quarter (,1,353) in South Africa, followed by 656 in Egypt and 584 in Algeria.
Virtually all 55 African countries have confirmed cases. These numbers are set to skyrocket as under-resourced public health systems grapple with containing the pandemic.
The World Health Organisation’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, former health minister of Ethiopia, has implored Africa to wake up to the threat , and noted how the continent is least equipped on its own to combat the pandemic.
African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) Country Review Reports (CRRs) from Sierra Leone, Lesotho and Tanzania illustrate how problems in the health sector, coupled with poor governance and corruption, can exacerbate outbreaks like the coronavirus and Ebola.
Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone was peer-reviewed in 2012. This was before the devastating Ebola outbreak in 2014 that caused 3,955 deaths in the West African country.
Sierra Leone’s civil war from 1991 to 2002 damaged the quality of health service delivery and the sector became chronically under-funded as a result. Despite government efforts its CRR said, “health service delivery, particularly to the poor and to rural areas, continues to suffer from (i) limited access due to distance and cost of services; (ii) inadequate transport and referral system; (iii) inadequate supply of medicines and supplies; (iv) limited community participation in sanitation and healthcare; and (v) critical shortage of health professionals.” Read more…
