Extremely low death rates in many African countries have confounded several scientists and health experts across the world. Some scientists believe that most African nations have low death rates because they have a relatively younger population with some kind of a robust immunity, used to fight lethal viruses like Ebola. Hypotheses of high temperatures, low population density in most of the countries and limited public transport facilities were also propounded as reasons for low incidence of Covid-19.

Take the case of Sierra Leone, in western Africa, where only 125 Covid-19 deaths were officially recorded. A nation of 8 million people, with a poor health infrastructure, has its hospital wards packed with malaria patients, but too few Covid-19 cases. Not just Sierra Leone, deaths due to the virus didn’t reach four-figure marks in countries like Tanzania and Togo.

But some experts claim low death rates in countries like Sierra Leone is due to low testing and low reporting, despite the fact that a study found 78 per cent of people have antibodies of the virus. That means either people were asymptomatic in spite of the infection, or they were getting infected at home or died due to Covid is not getting registered with civil authorities. In any case, cases of death reporting are less in most African nations; approximately one in three deaths are reported. South Africa is among those rare African countries where deaths are recorded. As a result, Covid death rates are also higher there.

A recent study in Lusaka, the capital of Zambia, an eastern African country, found that around 90 per cent of deceased people in 2020-2021 tested positive for the coronavirus, much more than the official death toll. The study was reported in Nature.

Although most experts don’t agree with the theory of less counting or testing, almost all of them say that the apparent low death rates shouldn’t make authorities complacent. Vaccine inequity still keeps the majority of Africans unvaccinated and vulnerable to possible new strains of the coronavirus.

READ MORE:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/23/health/covid-africa-deaths.html

https://fortune.com/2022/03/23/africa-covid-immunity-medical-mystery-mortality-rates-europe/

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-00842-9