[ad_1]
As of April 18, according to the African Centers for Disease Control, there were 21,990 cases of COVID-19 in Africa, and no country had more than 3,000 confirmed cases.
Africa is home to 1.3 billion people. Many of the 52 countries that make up the African Union are small, impoverished, economically underdeveloped, and still face neocolonialism from their former colonial lords and resist the advances of US imperialism, which seeks unrestricted access to the vast riches of Africa.
An informational mural by youth artists warning of the risk of coronavirus in the Mathare slum of Nairobi, Kenya.
Nigeria, with almost 214 million people, and South Africa, with almost 58 million, are its most developed countries. Sixty percent of people living in Africa are under the age of 25. About 70 percent of Africa’s working class is in the informal sector.
Infectious diseases such as malaria, polio, Ebola, measles, AIDS, and tuberculosis are episodic epidemics in Africa. There was an Ebola outbreak in West Africa during the years 2014-16 that infected more than 28,000 people, of whom 11,000 died.
ACDC for disease prevention
Based on the need for coordinated public health measures required to mitigate, contain and then end the Ebola outbreak, the African Union established the African Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2017. The mandate given to ACDC was to become a continental entity for disease prevention, surveillance and response.
The first important step that ACDC took in 2017 was to establish a formal working relationship with the World Health Organization to coordinate its efforts. The director of the ACDC was designated as a special envoy of the WHO.
How they work together can be seen in the weekly webinars that ACDC has been running. The webinars for doctors and nurses focus on how to diagnose, manage and treat patients with COVID-19, and offer practical advice on how to overcome the problems caused by extreme poverty. WHO specialists point out that it is possible to contain and mitigate COVID-19.
For example, in Sudan, where many families cannot afford to buy the soap and water needed to wash their hands, 20 portable hand washing facilities are now accessible in seven locations in the Sudanese capital as part of the emergency response. to COVID-19. Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, has a similar program, and since the ACDC has promoted this idea, it is likely to spread further.
Along with the youth of its population, Africa’s deep poverty will play an important role in its response to COVID-19.
There are approximately 2,000 fans in Africa for its 1.3 billion people. Somalia’s health ministry does not yet have a single one. The Central African Republic has three. South Sudan, four. Liberia, five. Nigeria, with a population two-thirds that of the United States, has less than 100. Ten African countries have none. For comparison, the United States has 170,000 fans, and needs more, for 330 million people.
While ventilators can play a role in saving the sickest patients, oxygen supplies, tubes, and personal protective equipment are also essential.
American withdrawal from the WHO
Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO’s director of the Africa region, sees both a financial and a political aspect in President Trump’s suspension of funds from the United States to WHO, which account for 15 percent of its budget.
Moeti spoke at a press conference on COVID-19 in Africa, which was covered by Reuters News on April 16. According to Moeti, the WHO in Africa is not only working to improve patient care and reduce deaths of COVID-19 patients. He also works on other killers like polio, AIDS, and malaria. “The impact, potentially, of this decision will be quite significant in areas such as polio eradication,” he said, just as Africa was close to being declared free of polio.
China, in the midst of its tough but successful fight against the epidemic at the national level, has sent aircraft loads of essential supplies to almost all AU members, some funded by the China Jack Ma Foundation. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi promised to continue providing materials that Africa needs, share his anti-pandemic experience and send medical experts.
Cuba, which has been under United States sanctions for more than 60 years, recently sent a contingent of 250 doctors, mainly doctors, to Angola, a country whose connection to Cuba matured in its common armed struggle against the racist apartheid regime. who then ruled South Africa in the 1970s and 1980s.
WHO Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus has organized solidarity flights from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to distribute essential medical supplies. The flights are a joint initiative of the AU, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the WHO. The governments of the United Arab Emirates and Ethiopia finance the flights.
If the Trump administration had not cut funds to the WHO in an attempt to find a scapegoat for its own disastrous mistakes, this international solidarity would save even more lives.
