SEATTLE, United States, Apr 18 – The COVID-19 pandemic has shown that global health is only as strong as our most vulnerable community. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation says the world can defeat this virus, but it require us to fight it fairly; not just with the needs of the most powerful in mind, but with the needs of all people, especially those in Africa.
The Foundations’ Africa Director, Oumar Seydi, says they are already working with their African partners to protect the most vulnerable; accelerate detection and containment of the virus; develop treatments and a vaccine; and minimize societal and economic impact.
Since the virus emerged late last year, COVID-19 has largely been a disease of the Global North with the worst and deadliest effects have been felt in Europe, East Asia, and North America.
But that is likely to change said Seydi, as the pandemic reaches its peak and begins to slow in these places, epidemiological models suggest it will accelerate in developing nations— including those in sub-Saharan Africa.
“When I joined the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation last year as its Africa Director, I never imagined that the continent would be dealing with a situation of this magnitude, and I salute the continent’s leaders for adopting measures to prevent the virus’ rapid spread amongst their populations,” said Seydi in an opinion piece posted in the foundation’s website earlier this week.
Seydi: “The first area is where the bulk of our work has been focused since the outbreak. We’ve helped set up Emergency Operations Centers (EOCs), for example, and have been working with partners like the World Bank Group and the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa.”
“We know physical distancing measures are necessary to slow the spread of COVID-19, but we also know that those distancing measures as they were applied in the United States and Western Europe might not work in the African context,” he explained. “Many more people on the continent face a terrible choice – stay home or feed their children. We know that genuine community engagement might help overcome this obstacle, and we’re working with our partners to support the effort.”
Seydi said the foundation has also assisted in scaling up local disease surveillance and testing in the past several weeks. “At the start of the year, for instance, only two countries in sub-Saharan Africa had the ability to test for COVID-19. In early February, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention started training health workers for how to test for the virus. Our organization was very proud to support that work, and now 40 of 54 African nations have the capacity to analyze COVID tests.”
Starting this week, the foundation says it is devoting some resources to answer questions like: How will we make sure the pandemic doesn’t erase the progress that the continent has made fighting poverty and other diseases? And what can Africa do to emerge from this crisis better prepared for others in the future?
No one has all the answers to these questions yet said Seydi but some of the foundation’s partners have some valuable experience. “The 2014 West African Ebola outbreak, for example, taught us that during an epidemic most deaths aren’t caused by the infectious disease itself but by lapses in routine care.”
“Children die because they don’t receive the standard immunizations, and people of all ages suffer because they don’t get medicines for diseases like HIV, malaria, or TB,” he explained.
“So, now we’re supporting ways to ensure that care continues even in the midst of the COVID-19 crisis. We’re also investing in long-term R&D like the efforts of national laboratory services to validate new testing methods. This will help us detect novel diseases down the road.”
Ultimately, the foundations says that the short-term and long-term components of it’s strategy go hand-in-hand, and elements of an emergency response can be useful long after the crisis has passed.
“For example, we’re working very hard to help stabilize the market for medical supplies that COVID- 19 patients need like oxygen. In the future, those same oxygen systems will also save the lives of newborns and other people who need them,” said Seydi.
Expanded testing capacity for COVID-19 can be applied to fight other diseases too, and our foundation is working with the Africa CDC, as well as other regional centers and national public health institutes, to strengthen that infrastructure.
The opinion piece has commended the private sector for quickly mobilized to fight this virus saying that the capabilities they’re developing will help later too. It notes that many companies are figuring out new ways to finance and distribute food and drugs. Others are innovating in the health space, making advances in telemedicine. This work will bear fruit now, as well as later, and our foundation is committed to continuing our work with the private sector.
Pandemics have a way of magnifying inequalities wrote Seydi. “Look at gender, for instance. Women account for the majority of the health care workforce which means they’re more exposed to the disease. At the same time, less attention is usually paid to their health, and areas like family planning and maternal care are typically the first to be cut during an economic downturn, meaning that women and girls who manage to navigate COVID-19 and its financial consequences may still face restrictions to basic care.”
The foundation also points to inequalities between nations, not just within them. “We’re seeing these inequalities play out now in international bidding wars for PPE. Often, a shipment of masks or ventilators is going to whomever can pay the most,” Seydi.
Seydi concludes by saying that the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation partners and frontline workers across the African continent are performing extraordinary feats, but a global pandemic requires a global response, and the responsibility for action must rest with us all.
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