The new coronavirus has, according to experts, reached the continent thanks to travelers returning from hot spots in Asia, Europe and the United States. With the first case of COVID-19 in Africa recorded in Egypt on February 14. Since then, a total of 52 countries have reported cases. But a surprising feature of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic to date in sub-Saharan Africa is the relative prevalence of the virus compared to other regions of the world.
All countries in sub-Saharan Africa, exceptSouth Africa andEthiopia, reported less than 100,000 total cases and less than 1,500 deaths in December 2020. But that had not prevented the virus from molting and giving rise, due to genetic, environmental and developmental diversity, to various “lineages. ” in Africa. At Senegal in particular, a recent study had shown that 27 “lines” of SARS-CoV-2 are believed to be in circulation in the country.
19% of the population exposed to 27 coronaviruses
Outbreaks of infectious diseases are made up of chains of transmission, but surprisingly little is known about how lineages of transmission vary in ” spatial distribution and persistence Or how key properties such as the size and duration of the epidemic result from their combined action. This is because regional epidemics can be very dynamic at the genetic level, with recurrent importation and extinction of chains of transmission in a given location.
In any case, to have results, it was necessary for a state or an institution to give itself the means. At Senegal, it’s’Pastor Institute who got down to this work under the leadership of the general administrator of the Institute at Dakar, the doctor Amadou Sall. Recently the doctor of public health and expert in the fight against epidemics, revealed that his institution in collaboration with the Senegalese ministry of health, had launched from October to November 2020, a national seroprevalence survey for covid-19.
An investigation which made it possible to discover that Senegal, it would not be less than 27 ” bloodlines »Or viruses from different strains of SARS-CoV-2, which are said to be in circulation in Senegal. These lines had exhibited, one put in the other, ” 19% of the population “, That is to say a little more than three million people, with the disease. These statistics, which, compared to official contamination figures, of only 35,000 cases, seem to support observers in the theory of ‘‘collective immunity’‘ in action. But Senegalese officials say they are playing the card of caution and continue to organize massive vaccination campaigns.
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