Remarks by WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti
Good morning, good afternoon, bonjour and welcome to all the journalists joining this press conference today, where we will focus on new WHO analysis showing that over two-thirds of people on the African continent may have acquired a certain level of immunity, following exposure to the COVID-19 virus.
To mark World Health Day today, we will also highlight how climate-related health emergencies in Africa are on the rise.
I am pleased to be joined for this important conversation today by, first, Professor Guéladio Cissé, Coordinating Lead Author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change at the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, at the University of Basel. Welcome, Professor, and also by Dr Irene Owusu Donkor, Postdoctoral Fellow at the African Postdoctoral Training Initiative, and a Research Fellow at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research in Ghana.
A very warm welcome to you two.
There have now been 11.5 million COVID-19 cases, and 252 000 lives sadly lost in Africa due to the pandemic.
While new cases and deaths continue to decline across the continent, fresh analysis conducted by WHO reveals that available data is likely only scratching the surface of the real extent of coronavirus infections in Africa.
Currently under peer review, a new meta-analysis of standardized seroprevalence study revealed that the true number of infections could be as much as 97 times higher than the number of reported confirmed cases.
This suggests that more than two-thirds of all Africans have been exposed to the COVID-19 virus, and this compares to the global average, where the true number of infections is 16 times higher than the number of confirmed reported cases.
This new insight into the evolution of the pandemic in Africa, produced following analysis of more than 150 studies published between January 2020 and December last year, showed how exposure to the COVID-19 virus skyrocketed, from just 3% in June 2020, to 65% by September the following year.
In real terms, this means that in September 2021, rather than the reported 8.2 million cases, there were in fact, 800 million infections.
And I think it’s very important to note here that countries’ testing strategy and capacity also has a significant influence. So, if we are comparing reported cases and estimated infections based on seroprevalence surveys, we are really reporting different things.
But what is important is to underline the fact that the reported cases may not be reflecting the number of infections. This is because the focus in Africa has been very much on testing symptomatic people – especially when there were challenges with access to testing supplies. This has resulted in an underrepresentation of the true number of people who have been exposed, and infected by the virus.
So, significant undercounting is common in countries across the world, with 45.2% of the world’s population estimated to have been infected by the virus by September 2021. It is, however, difficult to compare figures for Africa with those of other Regions, as many of the studies conducted cover different time periods and, as indicated, testing strategies varied greatly across regions.
We do know, however, that fewer studies are conducted in Africa than elsewhere.
The production of accurate data in Africa is further complicated because 67% of people with COVID-19 on the continent have no symptoms. This highlights the need for sustained levels of routine testing and surveillance going forward, if we are going to be able to stay a step ahead of the pandemic.
As such, we, as WHO in Africa, urge countries to continue to ramp up testing, contact tracing and surveillance.
With many social protection measures now being relaxed, it will become even more important to allow for tracking of the virus in real time, and monitoring of its evolution.
Our analysis is clear evidence of the continued significant circulation of the COVID-19 virus amongst people on the continent. With this comes the heightened risk of more lethal variants that can overwhelm existing immunity.
So, vaccination against COVID-19 remains our best defence; while we know that people who have had COVID-19 enjoy some degree of immunity, this is unlikely to be universally comparable to the scientifically established immunity delivered by the vaccine.
This is especially true in the event of the virus mutating. Before the Omicron wave, for example, the general scientific rule was that one bout of infection, irrespective of the variant, provided immunity comparable to a single jab. But this immunity began to reduce after four to six months and therefore, we would like to emphasize that it is important even for people that have had COVID-19 illness be vaccinated.
There are also multiple studies to show that when those who previously had COVID-19 are vaccinated against COVID-19, they enjoy improved protection.
Turning now to the second focus of this press conference - the growing number of extreme weather events and the consequent impact on health in Africa, which is major cause for concern.
The theme of World Health Day 2022, Our Planet, Our Health, could not be more timely; another new WHO study has found that of the more than 2000 public health events recorded in the African Region in the decade up to 2021, more than half were climate-related.
During the same period, the Region experienced 25% more climate-related events compared to the previous decade.
The statistics serve as an important reminder of the importance of being able to maintain the response to other health priorities in Africa, especially in the face of threats like COVID-19.
The entire foundation of good health is in jeopardy, with increasingly severe climatic events deepening Africa’s health crises. For example, our analysis found that water-borne diseases, mainly due to cholera outbreaks, accounted for 40% of climate-related health emergencies in the past 20 years.
In Africa, diarrhoeal diseases are the third leading cause of death and illness in children younger than five – which could be preventable with safe drinking water, and adequate sanitation and hygiene, and, of course, vaccination.
I’d like to take this opportunity to call on African governments to prioritize human well-being in every strategy and decision: to halt new fossil fuel exploration and subsidies, to institute taxes for polluting firms, and to implement the WHO Air Quality Guidelines, for example.
Although Africa contributes the least to global warming, the continent bears a disproportionate burden of the consequences. It is up to every one of us to promote and support multi-sectoral interventions that address the threat of climate change, while helping to better prepare African countries for future health shocks, like the COVID-19 pandemic.
I look forward very much to our discussions today. Again, a warm welcome to my fellow panelists and thank you for joining us to the journalist colleagues who are with us.