DRC response to coronavirus

globalvoices has a report on the cases in DRC, which were imported from Europe.

 DR Congo has banned large gatherings, ordered school and university closures for four weeks and closed its border with Rwanda, all measures taken to stem the spread of the virus. The government also suspended all international flights from countries with a high number of cases of COVID-19.

Genetic puzzle on coronavirus

I had read a couple articles that mentioned Africans having fewer Corona virus cases and deaths, and I assumed that this was because of the sunlight/living outdoors instead of inside houses in the winter as in China and the USA/Europe, or maybe because a lot of Africans take anti malarial medicine to prevent getting that disease, or maybe just that they haven't done enough tests and people are sick without going to hospitals and getting counted.

But StrategyPage notes:

...Chinese researchers found that Africans are less likely to catch covid19 because they have one fifth as many cellular receptors in their lungs than Chinese. That difference enables covid19 to cause breathing problems more, or less, readily. ...

  Lung damage is the most frequent cause of death among covid19 victims. So far Africa, with 18 percent of the world population has only suffered about 0.3 percent of the covid19 infections. Africans are not immune, just less likely to get in infected or suffer the breathing problems that cause most covid10 related death

this doesn't mean they can't get sick or die, but merely that the disease might be less fatal in certain populations.

One wonders if this observation is seen in the African diaspora on other continents.

the chaos in the DRC

LINK

stategypage discusses ebola and other disease, locusts, and war.


You think you have it bad?

the Congo and other central African areas are fighting disease, war, and locusts.

Disease: unlike Liberia, the WHO has fought the Ebola epidemic with local health care workers, and is now using vaccines.

the churches are doing a lot of the developmental work, but  are not mentioned in most of the lay press reports, but when I was in Africa, most of the rural hospitals and clinics were either church sponsored or run by medical personnel trained in church hospitals. I suspect it is the same in Central Africa, but of course the secular "doctors without borders" get most of the publicity in the news reports, probably because they are European/American (i.e. white).

the bad news: Corona virus is expected to hit (maybe via China, since China has a lot of their people doing work on various projects in Africa). But since there is now a medical infrastructure in place (to fight ebola), it mwans maybe they will be able to handle this better than more African countries.

SP latest news is that cases are down:

The number of new Ebola “cases per day” has dropped. From February 18 to 23, there was only one new confirmed case in North Kivu Province. As of February 23, there have been 3,444 total cases,

but ebola is not the only killer here. From SP:

February 14, 2020: The UN issued a report examining malaria in Burundi during 2019. From January through December 2019 Burundi had 8,892,300 malaria cases. The disease killed 3,294 people or 37 per 100,000 infected.

and measles has killed at least 6000 in the area:

Under the leadership of the DRC Ministry of Health, WHO, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and other partner aid agencies vaccinated more than 18 million children under five across the country in 2019. '

However, in some areas, routine vaccination coverage remains low and 25% of the reported measles cases are in children over the age of five. ....

Since the start of 2019, around 310 000 suspected measles cases have been reported. The epidemic has been aggravated by low vaccination coverage among vulnerable communities, malnutrition, weak public health systems, outbreaks of other epidemic-prone diseases, difficult access by vulnerable populations to health care and insecurity that has hampered response in some areas.

see that comment about "insecurity?

This is from gangs/ irregular tribal insurgencies and wars.

when I was in Africa, our main danger was not from government soldiers, or even the regular insurgents, but from deserters or rogue groups from both sides who had guns and who used them to rob/rape/kill.

Again the SP article includes reports of various groups who killed people.








But note that these are being fought. China got into the news saying they will export 100 thousand ducks to eat the locusts, but I wonder if that will work: I suspect most will die during transport, and those that survive the trip might not adjust to the climate. More likely the locals and the dogs will eat the ducks.

but the dirty little secret is that pesticides are being used (don't tell western greenies). Again from SP:

On February 11 the Ugandan government deployed around 2,000 Ugandan Army soldiers to fight the locusts. Here’s how an army counter-locust operation works. When locals detect a swarm they report it. Uganda is also employing drone aircraft to monitor locust swarms and their movements.

When a swarm is identified, several dozen soldiers armed with manual and motorized pesticide spray pumps move to the infested area. Ugandan military officers report that locust swarms don’t move at night, which means the pre-dawn hours are the optimal time to spray pesticide on an infested field to insure killing adult locusts. 

Speaking of "greenies":  one of the reasons I dislike "animal conservation" is that they take the side of animals against the locals.

Usually this means stopping locals from killing predators or elephants who eat them or their crops, but SP notes:

February 6, 2020: European media are citing a draft report that alleges “ecoguards” in the Republic of Congo (Brazzaville) are physically assaulting and intimidating Baka pygmy tribesmen who live near a national park the guards patrol. Ecoguard is shorthand for “ecological guard.” The ecoguard program is partially funded by international conservation groups. According to reports, the ecoguards carry firearms. For thousands of years, pygmies have been persecuted by the majority of Africans of normal height. As a result, the pygmies lived reclusive lives, often deep in forests away from majority populations.

Sigh.