Malaria is to Africa what COVID19 is to the rest of the world
I have heard and read a lot about the covid19 pandemic right from the onset up to date. Even though I am yet to come across any case of infection physically, I happen to know many folks on Hive here that have been victims of the virus. Fortunately enough, none of those I know who got infected lost their lives to it.
The breakout of the virus had everyone fearing for their existence. While the governments in developed countries are able to make policies to curtail the spread of the virus while only hands got on deck to find a lasting solution, many, many African countries had something more biting inflicting them - hunger. Thus, many of the policies made to curtail the spread of the virus were met with defiance by the populace.
For example, in Nigeria where a large percentage of the populace survives on small businesses that require daily trades, the call for lockdown by the government never really took effect. While citizens of developed countries were locked down with palliative cheques from the government (perhaps bot all developed countries, by the way), the palliative foods sponsored by non-governmental organizations and private sectors in Nigeria never made it to the populace - a result of corruption.
Amidst all the hullabaloo, several notable individuals in the world started making predictions of doom for Africa in relation to COVID19. In a particular interview with CNN, wife to the popular philanthropist and CEO of Microsoft Corporation, Melinda Gate predicted that African countries will be hit the most as far as mortality from the pandemic is concerned. Not like it was a difficult prediction to make looking at the trend of events.
That interview with Melinda Gate happened in April of 2020, we are now in 2022 and the cumulative covid related death from Africa, which stood at a little over two hundred thousand as of November 2021, is still significantly lower than that of the US (771,000) and that of Europe (over 1.5 million). This trend is despite the low rollout of vaccines in African countries. As of the beginning of this year, a little over 300 million doses of vaccine have been rolled-out in Africa with a population of over 1.2 billion people. This is as opposed to 6.31 billion doses in Asia with a population of fewer than 5 billion people, and 1.11 billion doses in Europe with a population size of less than 1 billion.
When it comes to malaria, however, the story is entirely different.Covid19 virus ravages the entire world without any boundary but the malaria infection is peculiar to malaria-endemic zones of the world. In 2020 alone according to WHO, there were about 241 million cases of malaria worldwide with Africa responsible for about 95% of all the cases. Not just that, out of a total of 627,000 deaths recorded the same year, about 96% happened in Africa.
With the breakout of the omicron variant of covid19 a few weeks ago, one would expect that measures to curtail the spread of the virus will heighten among the populace. In actual fact, the reverse was the case in Nigeria. Only very few people are seen with nose masks while virtually no one is observing anything close to social distancing. Yes, Nigeria reported cases of omicron variants but it has defied the highly infectious trend observed in other parts of the world.
Instead of our hospitals being filled with cases of the virus, you will see general outpatient departments of Nigerian hospitals being filled with cases of malaria. Even though the incidence of complications and deaths from malaria is quite low when compared to cases of covid in other regions of the world, it will not be totally out of place to opine that Africa is more in need of malaria vaccine than covid vaccines.
Malaria keeps claiming lives annually despite the tons of drugs available to combat the disease and prophylactic measures to limit the infection rate. This can be attributed to a host of factors bordering around cost and access to drugs as well as the resistance of malaria parasites to available treatment. Thus, the vaccine seems to be the final solution to the menace.
The good news is that a malaria vaccine has been developed and approved for distribution and administration. How soon the vaccine will go round remains a concern.
Final Words
There are cases of covid19 infection in Nigeria, no doubt. However, I as a person have only heard about these cases in the news or on social media. This is also the case with many Nigerians and an indication that the rate of infection of the virus is very low compared to Europe and some other parts of the world.
The reverse is the case with malaria. Everyone here either has had bouts of malaria or knows someone with a history. Also, you are guaranteed to find cases of malaria virtually in all the hospitals in the country. Coincidentally, covid19 and malaria infections have many symptoms and treatments in common.
What do you think?
Some say the recent malaria is covid though but we aren't finding out because we aren't doing the tests.
What proof do they have to back up the claim?
Everyone is falling sick with symptoms that are known to covid, I don't believe it though.
The symptoms are not peculiar to covid alone. There is a thin line between the symptoms of covid and that of malaria.
Exactly what I said, I don't believe that it is covid.
Can you provide some proofs to back up this statement, as @gentleshaid suggested. What I have read tends to say that there are big differences (and they are thus different diseases). See for instance this scientific article.
Well most of my friends that hardly fall sick have been falling sick and some of the symptoms include runny nose, itchy throat, and even when they take malaria medicine, they don't recover as quickly as they would usually do but I guess that the problem is that there are no active tests going on especially in my state so most people just assume that it is malaria.
It is also important to note that most Nigerians self medicate so they never actually take tests.
I am not sure that I have followed what you meant initially.
I had the impression you were saying that malaria and COVID were the same thing. This statement seems incorrect to me. They have common points in terms of symptoms, but they are two different diseases. On the contrary, I now have the impression you discuss problems inherent to Nigeria in getting the right diagnosis (which is different). Do you mind clarifying? Thanks in advance.
Oh I wasn't saying that they were the same, I was saying that here most people might have covid but think it's malaria because most people never go for tests and they don't even know symptoms that are specific to covid.
Aaaah I see. Now I understand. Then it is somehow a failure of the healthcare system. Sorry for the confusion.
It's alright, minus it being a failure in the health care system, most Nigerian don't believe that covid is real because of the corruption that runs deep.
However, facts can be checked (it is just a matter of taking the effort of doing so :) ).
Yeah, this is true.
https://twitter.com/gentleshaid/status/1479119765121605649
The rewards earned on this comment will go directly to the person sharing the post on Twitter as long as they are registered with @poshtoken. Sign up at https://hiveposh.com.
I think that the comparison made for the COVID deaths (not specifically in your post, but in general) is a bit more complicated than that and should go beyond plain numbers. It should account for instance for the density of population (not for the initial cases but for the spread) or the average temperature (that could make the ground for a spread more suitable). And many more.
This being said, I agree that for Africa, Malaria is more problematic than COVID. But the future looks bright, doesn't it?
The future does look bright, indeed. While I'm yet to take any covid jab, I'll go extra length to get malaria c vaccine once it becomes locally available. I get malaria, at least, 3 times in a year.
Of course, the difference in infection and mortality rates could, and will most likely, due to a host of factors, some of which you have mentioned.
I think one of the reasons Africa suffers less COVID associated symptoms is demographics. COVID kills the old. The median age in Africa is half that of the U. S. Covid kills the obese. Obesity in Africa is a fraction of what it is in the U. S. And obesity kills those with diabetes. Diabetes in Africa is estimated to be 1/3 of the rate in the U.S. In a way, COVID deaths are a symptom of economic privilege.
That said, the lack of treatment for malaria I don't think would be the case if the disease affected the U. S. or other developed countries in the way that it affects the continent of Africa.
There is nothing fair about healthcare delivery in the world. Actually, there isn't much that is fair in the world.😏
Hope you and your family are well in this new year, @gentleshaid.
I definitely agree with your points. There are many factors that enter and those you raise are very valid ones. The reality is probably a very complex machinery at the end of the day, that we will hopefully understand one day.
Yea. It's going to be a combination of factors. Also not ruling out genetics. I guess we just have to play the waiting game.
Yes we do :)
Your hypothesis definitely sounds logical from the surface. Like Lemouth said, I am certain a series of factors could be at play, also when you consider that mortality is not just low but the infection rate too.
Hello @gentleshaid. @chappertron wrote an essay along these lines when the pandemic first started. Then it was speculation, but now it seems, even from data within the same culture that variations in morbidity and mortality are closely tied to certain risk factors.
I am glad that you see little evidence of COVID in your midst. It has taken people form my community.
In my own opinion although not proven scientifically, the fact that malaria is endemic in Africa and we take antimalarial drugs periodically; with resemblance in Malaria and Covid-19 in terms of symptoms probably primed the body defence mechanism against covid-19.
A lot of hypotheses but what is obvious is that none can exclude malaria. I hope we will get the know the actual fact in the nearest future. Could also be genetic. Would be interesting to see the proportion of blacks domiciled in Europe/America that has fallen victims to the virus in relation to other races.
Thanks for your contribution to the STEMsocial community. Feel free to join us on discord to get to know the rest of us!
Please consider delegating to the @stemsocial account (85% of the curation rewards are returned).
You may also include @stemsocial as a beneficiary of the rewards of this post to get a stronger support.
Your content has been voted as a part of Encouragement program. Keep up the good work!
Use Ecency daily to boost your growth on platform!
Support Ecency
Vote for new Proposal
Delegate HP and earn more
I think the number of death attributed to COVID-19 in Africa cannot be trusted. I think it might be far lesser than that reported. There are allegation that Africans falsify figure to secure grants.
I think the number of death attributed to COVID-19 in Africa cannot be trusted. I think it might be far lesser than that reported. There are allegation that Africans falsify figure to secure grants.
Haha.... 😅
Just imagine
This is such an interesting point that you make here. Western countries focused on their own well-being, unable to understand that their threat is not necessarily the biggest threat to others. I appreciate your position on this.
I was glad to read that a remedy for malaria is now available. Wouldn't it be a great idea to combine the two shots to protect Africans against the current scourge of Covid AND the ongoing, longstanding threat of malaria?
Thank you for raising my consciousness on this point.
Best wishes for Happiness, Health, and Prosperity in 2022!
Cheers!
Glad you found the post an eye opener. Thanks for the comment.
Yeah, some of the world's got bigger problems than covid.
But a man in Greece nevertheless killed himself a couple days ago when he found out he had covid...
While I agree with your analysis, I still have my comment on how we are not able to get the true picture of covid-19 patients in Africa, especially Nigeria where many don't usually go for test when they fall sick