Major Coronavirus Catastrophe On The Horizon In Sub-Saharan Africa

Posted by: lukwago J in Health April 20, 2020

Many experts, including Bill Gates, are predicting that developing countries in Sub-Saharan Africa will be the worst affected by the coronavirus epidemic. The World Economic Forum has highlighted that the loss of one doctor in Africa affects more than 10,000 people.

In countries where poverty, malnutrition and poor general health are rife, healthcare systems are overburdened, and social distancing will be difficult to implement, a major catastrophe is on the horizon.

Arun Prabhu, co-founder of Landcent, a health innovation company that is delivering PPE and testing kits internationally, is calling for Western countries to urgently ramp up their response to the spread of Covid-19 on the African continent and reorient supply chains to ensure that critical PPE supplies and rapid testing kits are made available in the required quantities on the frontlines.

Arun Prabhu is raising the alarm that a globally coordinated response, as seen in the Ebola crisis, will be necessary to mitigate the looming catastrophe.

“The situation in Sub-Saharan Africa is a ticking time bomb. For healthcare systems that are already overburdened, the loss of even one doctor or nurse in many African countries would have enormous ramifications. Just as with the Ebola crisis, we cannot leave African countries to fend for themselves at this critical moment.

“While developed nations are battling the virus at home, they must also rally together to coordinate a global response to this epidemic that ensures that African countries also receive the urgently needed supplies to tackle it. Supplies are available, but we must act now to reorient supply chains and divert some of this to Africa. If we fail to do so, we are going to see an explosion of the death rate that we have seen until now.”

Landcent can confirm that supplies are available, with their manufacturing partners having already supplied over 450,000 COVID-19 test kits (with another 4.5 million in production) and 7 million 3 Ply surgical masks (with another 14 million in production) worldwide to countries including South Korea, United States, Sweden, Netherlands, Singapore, and Germany.

Landcent has been in discussion with representatives in Liberia, Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe to discuss supplies, however, they have found that a major roadblock for authorities in these countries is that global supply chains are mainly geared towards serving European and the US-based customers as the current epicenter of the disease.

Landcent develops next-generation malaria prevention technologies and is based in the Netherlands and China. In response to the current pandemic, Landcent is sourcing European CE and US FDA approved PPEs, including coveralls and masks, and rapid diagnostic kits, which are urgently needed on the frontlines.

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