China is Africa's most important trading partner,
which is why concerns are growing about the possibility of coronavirus
spreading to the continent. Kenya's president Uhuru Kenyatta acknowledged it
would be hard for Africa to deal with a large-scale outbreak.
PRESIDENT UHURU KENYATTA: We don't have the
capacity to build hospitals in seven days, right? So we must do everything that
we can within the limited resources to ensure that we keep this virus
completely away.
SHAPIRO: NPR's Eyder Peralta has been looking into
what Africans are doing to keep the coronavirus away and the preparations that
they are making should it hit. Eyder joins us from Nairobi. Hi there.
EYDER PERALTA, BYLINE: Hey, Ari.
SHAPIRO: First, are there already confirmed cases
of coronavirus in Africa?
PERALTA: So there have been no confirmed cases,
but there have been dozens of suspected cases. And right now we're still
waiting on the results of five tests, but even this testing tells you a lot
about the preparation here in Africa. When this coronavirus first appeared,
there were only two labs on the whole continent that were capable of detecting
it, so everyone was shipping samples to South Africa, Senegal and even Europe.
But now there are 11 labs that are equipped to diagnose the virus, and the WHO
says that most of them are in countries that see a lot of travel with China.
But that's still very few labs. You're talking about 11 labs for 47 countries in
sub-Saharan Africa.
SHAPIRO: You mentioned travel with China. There
are a lot of flights between China and the African continent. Have countries
imposed travel restrictions?
PERALTA: Yeah. I mean, most African airlines have
canceled direct flights to and from China, and some of them have done so
reluctantly because they didn't want to jeopardize their relationship with
China. Ethiopian Airlines, which is the biggest airline in Africa, has decided
to keep flying to five Chinese cities. And they released a statement thanking
the Chinese for their, quote, "unreserved support," and they promised
to stand with them always. I did speak to Michael Yao, who runs the emergency
operations for the World Health Organization here on the continent, and he says
that they have not called for any travel restrictions. He says that what is
important is the proper screening of passengers. So the WHO has asked airports
to screen passengers for fever and make sure that they fill out paperwork so
that any suspected cases can be easily traced. And Ethiopian Airlines says that
they are complying with all of those standards.
SHAPIRO: And what did he tell you about Africa's
preparedness for an outbreak of coronavirus more broadly?
PERALTA: Well, you know, he did think it was a
good sign that there are now more labs with the ability to diagnose the virus,
and he said that he was pleasantly surprised at how the infrastructure that had
been built for Ebola had come online very quickly for this virus. But he was
also worried. Let's listen to a bit of what he told me.
MICHAEL YAO: Because severe cases tended to be
taken in charge by an intensive care unit where you have to provide the
respiratory equipment, and this capacity is very limited in many African city.
PERALTA: So the bottom line here, he says, is that
very few health centers have the respiratory equipment they need to save
critically ill coronavirus patients, and that essentially means that the death
rate in Africa could be much higher.
SHAPIRO: That seems really worrisome, and I
imagine it could be even worse if coronavirus hits parts of the continent that
are at war, like South Sudan or the Democratic Republic of Congo.
PERALTA: Yeah, no. That is the huge worry, and you
don't have to look very far to see how that plays out. Just in the past year
and a half, about 6,000 people have been killed by a measles outbreak in
eastern Congo, and in that part of Congo, you know, there's poor sanitation, poor
access to health. You have a lot of movement, a lot of people living in camps
and a lot of armed groups. And there is a vaccine for measles, and the fact
that that many people have died tells you just how tough a place this is to
control an epidemic.
SHAPIRO: NPR's Eyder Peralta in Nairobi, Kenya.
Thank you, Eyder.
PERALTA: Thank you, Ari.
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