Mary Wilson
Well-known member
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 suggest[SUP]1[/SUP]. 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 The findings have not yet been peer reviewed.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 speculated[SUP]2[/SUP] 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. ...
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00842-9
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 suggest[SUP]1[/SUP]. 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 speculated[SUP]2[/SUP] 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. ...
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00842-9
