Nigeria’s low COVID-19 deaths mystery: An act of God or lack of a robust surveillance system or average age of 18, etc?

[Emily]

https://punchng.com/nigerias-low-cov...an-act-of-god/
Nigeria’s low COVID-19 deaths mystery: An act of God?

18th October 2022

...
…Dr. Udensi K. Udensi is a Clinical Laboratory Scientist/Public Health personnel writing from Seattle Washington, USA

 

[sharon sanders]

from the above article:

snip

In a discussion with Ms. Ndidi Nwangwu-Ike, an epidemiologist in, the Division of HIV Prevention at the CDC, who visited Nigeria recently, she was surprised that the havoc wasn’t as bad as projected. According to her, many Africans may be immune already as they’re dealing with multiple airborne diseases at any given point. Also, many do not get tested- hence low reported cases. There is a lack of a robust surveillance system in Nigeria. Another factor is that the median age in most sub-Saharan Africa is low, Nigeria is 18 years. The data shows that these are not the ones that are typically hit hard with Covid. However, in her opinion, most of the cases both the sick and the dead were under-reported. It is believed that the people who die in their homes are not accounted for and not recorded in the government’s official document. That is the stand of most public health experts. It is a common belief that the number of cases was under-reported because of a shortage of test kits for SARS-CoV-2, the official name for the virus that causes Covid. Also, no standard electronic hospital and laboratory information systems. Thus, the number of cases cannot be tracked correctly. Ms. Nwangwu-Ike also shares the same speculations with other epidemiologists that the low mortality rate in Nigeria was because of the relative youth of Nigerian populations.


https://punchng.com/nigerias-low-covid-19-deaths-mystery-an-act-of-god/