Addressing Africa's pandemic puzzle: Perspectives on COVID-19 transmission and mortality in sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

To date, SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) has spread to almost every region of the world, infecting millions and resulting in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. Although it was predicted that Africa would suffer a massive loss of life due to this pandemic, the number of COVID-19 cases has been relatively low across the continent. Researchers have speculated that several factors may be responsible for this outcome in Africa, including the extensive experience that countries have with infectious diseases and the young median age of their populations. However, it is still important for African countries to adopt aggressive and bold approaches against COVID-19, in case the nature of the pandemic changes. This short review will summarize the status of the outbreak in Africa and propose possible reasons for current trends, as well as discuss interventions aimed at preventing a rapid increase in the number of COVID-19 cases in the future.

Keywords: Africa; COVID-19 susceptibility; Pandemic; Public health interventions; SARS-CoV-2 cases.

Figure 1

Proportion of two age classes across major geographic regions. The figure shows the proportion of individuals under the age of 15 years (in blue) and the proportion of individuals over the age of 65 years (in pink) for major continents (Desjardins, 2020). The figure also includes maps of Africa and Europe, two continents that are compared in the manuscript.