COVID 19 has turned the spotlight on Africa’s fragile health systems.
The Pandemic is spreading steadily across the continent raising alarm
about Africa’s capacity to fight the virus. Over 63,000 confirmed
COVID-19 cases on the African continent – with more than 2,283
associated deaths have been reported as of now.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is worried that Africa, home to
1.3 billion people, could be the next epicenter of the pandemic. Based
on the current trend, the United Nations Economic Commission for
Africa (Uneca) has projected nearly 123 million cases this year,
causing 300,000 deaths. With less than one intensive care bed and
ventilator per 100,000 people, the crisis Africa faces is no doubt
alarming.
Researchers at Britain’s MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease
Analysis at Imperial College London, on which the Uneca forecasts are
based, estimates that Africa will require at least 121,000 critical
care beds against the available 9800 when the pandemic peaks. It is
reported that an average of 12 Covid-19 patients in Africa could be
lined up for each available ICU bed at the height of the outbreak.
According to available statistics, the continent’s three most populous
nations – Nigeria, Ethiopia and Egypt – have 1,920 intensive care beds
between them for more than 400 million people. The situations in poorer
countries are even more frightening. Chad, an oil-rich but impoverished
nation of 15 million people, has only 10, whereas the island nation of
Mauritius, a financial hub home to 1.2 million, has 121. Some nations,
such as Guinea Bissau, have no ventilators at all. Mauritania has one;
Liberia has six; Somalia has 19. In some cases, even if the equipment
is available, lack of electricity and trained personnel are not.
Hospitals depend on diesel-powered generators, but some cannot afford
refueling and maintenance.
Africa’s health infrastructure has always been in shambles. Health
care funding has not been a priority for government spending. Instead
of investing in healthcare in their own countries, Africa’s ailing
leaders have always trusted treatment abroad. Critics point out that
money spent on medical trips abroad could have been used to equip
local hospitals with modern medical facilities such as ventilators,
which have proved critical in treating of Covid-19.
There is resistance even to seek help from outside. The recent
controversies when the South African government sought help from Cuban
health workers including doctors and criticisms the Nigerian
government had to face when a Chinese medical team arrived to help the
local health professionals, though may sound trivial, cannot be
ignored. In the case of South Africa, US Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo made a hue and cry when an ally (South Africa) sought the
help from Cuba, which belongs to the opposite camp. In Nigeria, the
opposition had come from the local medical staff ostensibly on account
of the allegedly contaminated medical equipment and materials
including ventilators, the Chinese team had brought with them.
Of course, there is no dearth of lofty commitments by African leaders.
As early as 2001, the heads of state of 52 African countries met in
Nigeria’s capital, Abuja and pledged 15% of their yearly domestic
budget on health. According to the WHO, only a handful of countries
such as Rwanda, Botswana, Zambia, etc. translated this into action. In
2015, Africa bore 23 percent of the world’s disease burden, and
accounted for only one percent of the global health spending for the
same year according to a study by Brookings Institute. The situation
has not improved even now. One doctor serves an average of 80,000
people in Africa, World Bank data says. Anesthetists often run
critical care units in Africa.
Though International organisations including the WHO and World Bank
are helping Africa, they are also handicapped. Lack of reliable data
to measure the continent’s needs, severe gaps in testing, personnel
and oxygen supplies and so on hamper their programmes. The World Bank
has committed more than $1 billion worth of equipment to 30 African
nations. Planeloads of aid are arriving from Turkey, China, Europe and
the Middle East.
Since African Government hospitals are ill-equipped to handle the
emergency, the governments are trying to woo the better staffed
private sector hospitals to get on board. But most private hospitals
need some form of payment guaranteed – as most governments pay bills
late or not at all. An internationally-administered independent fund
to handle the payments will encourage the private sector to step in.
With the predictions that the world may have to live with the
Coronavirus for longer than initial forecasts, Africa will have no
option but to fix its health systems. Let us hope that COVID 19 will
force Africa’s leadership to take action.
