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Around 90% of deceased people tested at a Lusaka facility during coronavirus surges were positive for SARS-CoV-2 infection, suggesting flaws in the idea of an ‘African paradox’.
23 March 2022
Freda Kreier
Almost one-third of more than 1,000 bodies taken to a morgue in Lusaka in 2020 and 2021 tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, implying that many more people died of COVID-19 in Zambia’s capital than official numbers suggest1. Some scientists say that the findings further undermine the ‘African paradox’, a narrative that the pandemic was less severe in Africa than in other parts of the world.
This idea arose after health experts noticed that sub-Saharan nations were reporting lower case numbers and fewer COVID-19 deaths than might be expected. But researchers say that the findings from Zambia could reflect a broader truth — that a deficit of testing and strained medical infrastructure have masked COVID-19’s true toll on the continent. The findings have not yet been peer reviewed.
Ignoring the true extent of COVID-19 in Lusaka and beyond “is so wrong. People were ill. They’ve had their families destroyed,” says co-author Christopher Gill, a global-health specialist at Boston University in Massachusetts. One of his colleagues in Zambia died of COVID-19 while working on the project.
“It’s not hypothetical to me,” says Gill.
Missing COVID cases
When SARS-CoV-2 began spreading globally, many health researchers worried that the virus would devastate sub-Saharan Africa. But the surprisingly low numbers of reported COVID-19 cases in the region led to the perception “that severe debilitation and deaths caused by COVID-19 were somehow less in Africa compared to other continents”, says Yakubu Lawal, an endocrinologist at the Federal Medical Centre Azare in Nigeria.
Lawal and other scientists speculated2 that the relative youth of Africa’s population might have helped to spare the continent, but also suspected that official numbers were under-reported. The question was by how much. ...
23 March 2022
Freda Kreier
Almost one-third of more than 1,000 bodies taken to a morgue in Lusaka in 2020 and 2021 tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, implying that many more people died of COVID-19 in Zambia’s capital than official numbers suggest1. Some scientists say that the findings further undermine the ‘African paradox’, a narrative that the pandemic was less severe in Africa than in other parts of the world.
This idea arose after health experts noticed that sub-Saharan nations were reporting lower case numbers and fewer COVID-19 deaths than might be expected. But researchers say that the findings from Zambia could reflect a broader truth — that a deficit of testing and strained medical infrastructure have masked COVID-19’s true toll on the continent. The findings have not yet been peer reviewed.
Ignoring the true extent of COVID-19 in Lusaka and beyond “is so wrong. People were ill. They’ve had their families destroyed,” says co-author Christopher Gill, a global-health specialist at Boston University in Massachusetts. One of his colleagues in Zambia died of COVID-19 while working on the project.
“It’s not hypothetical to me,” says Gill.
Missing COVID cases
When SARS-CoV-2 began spreading globally, many health researchers worried that the virus would devastate sub-Saharan Africa. But the surprisingly low numbers of reported COVID-19 cases in the region led to the perception “that severe debilitation and deaths caused by COVID-19 were somehow less in Africa compared to other continents”, says Yakubu Lawal, an endocrinologist at the Federal Medical Centre Azare in Nigeria.
Lawal and other scientists speculated2 that the relative youth of Africa’s population might have helped to spare the continent, but also suspected that official numbers were under-reported. The question was by how much. ...
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