Mitigating the impact of COVID-19 on children's surgery in Africa
Dennis Mazingi, George Ihediwa, Kathryn Ford, Adesoji Ademuyiwa, Kokila Lakhoo
Abstract
An outbreak of the disease known as COVID-19, which originated in Wuhan in the Hubei province of China, has rapidly spread to all continents of the globe.1 First detected via local hospital surveillance systems as a ‘pneumonia of unknown aetiology’ in late December 2019,2 the disease has since been declared a public health emergency of international concern by the WHO and reached pandemic status. It is uncertain what the eventual toll of the pandemic will be in Africa; however, there has been a suspicion that the looming pandemic may hit harder than it has the rest of the world.3 4 Africa has baseline weaknesses in healthcare resource allocation, and her fragile healthcare systems are particularly vulnerable to being overwhelmed by this illness.5 6 Available statistics, to date, however, seem to show that the pandemic has been slow to begin. As of 26 May, 115 346 cases and 3471 deaths have been reported across the whole African continent, constituting 2% of all cases in the globe.7 African nations have had an opportunity to prepare for the coming onslaught, learn from the experience in other countries3 and choose interventions that are tailor-made for the unique socioeconomic context.6 While old age has consistently been associated with a higher risk of poor outcome, children appear to have escaped the worst of the disease.8 In a recent series from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, less than 1% of the 73 314 cases were children below 10 years of age.9 Children of all ages may be affected, but they typically manifest mild or asymptomatic disease.10 11 This has important implications for the African pandemic: sub-Saharan Africa is the youngest continent in the globe with 63% of its population below the age of 25 years.12 …