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Source: https://www.thechronicleherald.ca/ne...vid-19-472548/
Counting the burials: African nations scramble to track COVID-19
Giulia Paravicini
Published: 3 hours ago
Updated: 1 hour ago
By Giulia Paravicini
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Long after the funding for his project was frozen, Bilal Endris has kept a lonely watch over cemeteries in Ethiopia's capital by slipping cash to gravediggers to alert his team to any sudden spikes in burials.
In a nation where fewer than 2% of deaths are registered, an increase in burials may be one of the first signs that a killer disease is on the loose.
The program was set up to monitor deaths related to HIV/AIDS a decade ago. Now doctor Bilal monitors for a spike in fatalities linked to COVID-19.
He has yet to see one, but projects like his are being set up in other African countries where many deaths go unrecorded, making it hard to assess the scale of a disease. In some cases, nations are dusting off programs set up during Ebola outbreaks.
Bilal himself has secured additional funding to restore the program to all 73 of Addis Ababa's cemeteries from just 10 now.
Only eight countries in Africa - Algeria, Cape Verde, Djibouti, Egypt, Mauritius, Namibia, Seychelles, and South Africa - record more than 75% of deaths, according to the United Nations...
Counting the burials: African nations scramble to track COVID-19
Giulia Paravicini
Published: 3 hours ago
Updated: 1 hour ago
By Giulia Paravicini
ADDIS ABABA (Reuters) - Long after the funding for his project was frozen, Bilal Endris has kept a lonely watch over cemeteries in Ethiopia's capital by slipping cash to gravediggers to alert his team to any sudden spikes in burials.
In a nation where fewer than 2% of deaths are registered, an increase in burials may be one of the first signs that a killer disease is on the loose.
The program was set up to monitor deaths related to HIV/AIDS a decade ago. Now doctor Bilal monitors for a spike in fatalities linked to COVID-19.
He has yet to see one, but projects like his are being set up in other African countries where many deaths go unrecorded, making it hard to assess the scale of a disease. In some cases, nations are dusting off programs set up during Ebola outbreaks.
Bilal himself has secured additional funding to restore the program to all 73 of Addis Ababa's cemeteries from just 10 now.
Only eight countries in Africa - Algeria, Cape Verde, Djibouti, Egypt, Mauritius, Namibia, Seychelles, and South Africa - record more than 75% of deaths, according to the United Nations...