The implications of COVID-19 for the children of Africa

Abstract

COVID-19, and the novel coronavirus causing it, has been declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization. It presents with signs and symptoms of respiratory illness, and other nonspecific symptoms. These symptoms may be mild enough to go unnoticed, or severe enough to overwhelm a healthcare system in a First-World country. It is an emerging problem that can potentially put intolerable strain on a health system that is fragile and likely to collapse, such as those that exist in Africa. Extraordinary times like these require ingenious statesmanship and astutely calculated plans to see a nation emerge through the crisis. And in such a crisis, special attention needs to be directed to the healthcare system, where medical attention, equipment and interventions need to be carefully rationed. To date, sub-Saharan Africa has not seen the devastation wrought on the Northern Hemisphere. That may be fortuitous, we may be lucky, it may just be coming.