The Western world, for all its medical advancements, complex economies, and military might, has fallen to its knees as the coronavirus (COVID-19) cripples the infrastructure of many Asian, European, and North American countries – especially the United States.
Despite predictions that Africa would be hit especially hard, African nations made great strides in isolating the contagion among their populations. How?
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), communicable disease outbreaks are “usually caused by an infection, transmitted through person-to-person contact, animal-to-person contact, or from the environment.”
That means the best way to contain a virus is by convincing citizens to change their behavior. As in the United States with COVID-19, many Liberians were also skeptical of the Ebola outbreak and called it a “hoax” early on, reports W. Guyude Moore, writing for the Center for Global Development.
The lessons learned then, however, mean Liberia and many other African nations are facing the real truth.
“Early, frequent and transparent community engagement is the key to responding to any major outbreak,” explains Moore. This is especially important in areas with resource-strapped health care systems.
When governments give contradictory messages, or downplay the severity of the threat, as in the United States, the spread can be very difficult to contain.
A Business Standard report shows how some clinicians cite how previous outbreaks have prepared the continent.
Dr. Petronella Mugoni, from South Africa, echoes Moore: “If you reach women with health information, you reach the whole household … A standardised response on a national level is critical and the messaging has to be strong. Citizens need information on how to protect themselves.”
They also learned that prevention and preparation is key. “Earlier this year, when I saw the case counts increasing in China and Europe, I started preparing the health and administrative authorities in my city,” explained Jules Aly Koundouno, who is running the COVID-19 response in Guinea.
Western countries who delayed their responses and/or dismantled pandemic response units, like the United States, have suffered.
“The positive is that there’s a lot of capacity that was built during the Ebola outbreak; doctors, nurses and logisticians who now have incredible experience with experimental treatments, vaccines, surveillance,” says Trish Newport, a deputy program manager for Doctors Without Borders who has helped combat the disease in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Some African nations are taking it a step further. Rwanda is so technologically advanced, they have opted to deploy robots to minimize contact between medical staff and patients.
“The five high-tech robots can perform a number of tasks related to COVID-19 management, including mass temperature screening, delivering food and medication to patients, capturing data, detecting people who are not wearing masks, among others,” says the New Times, a Rwandan publication.
As COVID-19 continues to spread, it’s clear there are lessons the rest of the world can learn from Africa.