In the past day, there have been almost 9 times more new coronavirus cases reported outside of China than inside, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said today
Without early detection and containment, African countries are at severe risk, says Africa CDC headA visitor sanitizes their hands before being allowed into a state hospital at Yaba in Lagos, Nigeria on February 28. Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP/Getty Images
Despite operating multiple direct flights to coronavirus-hit China, there were no confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus in Sub-Saharan Africa until last week. That is when Dr. John Nkengasong, Director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention , received a phone call in the early hours of the morning from Nigeria, where an Italian travelling on business was rapidly diagnosed and isolated.
I think there are two dangers facing Africa now -- the first is our ability to detect quickly, and the second is the ability to contain it. Nigeria was able to detect the virus quickly, I would say. The coming days will tell us if the containment strategy is right. The contacts of an individual who tests positive must be isolated and their contacts traced quickly.
Africa is a very diverse place. But why are some countries in Africa very susceptible to this particular disease? There are very few countries in Africa with those systems in place in their hospitals to care for a large number of patients. They may be able to care for some patients, but not for a large number of patients if they are overwhelmed, like we are seeing in China.
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