As cases of the coronavirus infection continue to decline in Nigeria, the Federal Government has suggested that the trend might be due to the over-exposure of citizens to malaria infections.
Chairman of the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19 and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, made this known in Abuja on Monday, but cautioned that the development should not make citizens lose their guard against the virus.
He said despite predictions of doom by the Western world that Africans may be worst hit by the virus owing to poor medical infrastructure, the latest trend is proving the postulations wrong.
The PTF chairman used the forum, where he briefs Nigerians on containment of the virus, to state that Africa accounts for just 5% of global confirmed COVID-19 cases and 3% of deaths.
He drew reference from a recent publication by the Weekly Science Review.
He said: “Nigerians will recall that, at the outbreak of the pandemic, it was predicted that the African continent – with its weak health infrastructure and propensity to high disease burden – would be the worst hit.
“A recent publication by the Weekly Science Review has indicated that despite having 17% of the global population, Africa has accounted for just 5% of global confirmed COVID-19 cases and 3% of deaths.
“Furthermore, a recent study by a group of African countries in East Africa indicates that Africa has weathered the storm of the pandemic with a death ratio of 1:10000 persons at a total of 23,000 so far.
“According to the study, far more Africans have been infected with the virus and are now resistant to it for reasons such as more exposure to variants of the coronavirus and regular exposure to malaria and other infectious diseases, which prime the African immune system to fight new pathogens.
“The PTF is, however, studying the manifestation of the virus in Nigeria and in other countries and continents in order to understand the nature.
“This should ordinarily give us encouragement that we are winning the war against the COVID-19 pandemic but, unfortunately, the science, data, and experience from other parts of the world indicate that such data should be viewed with extreme caution, as it is prone to be very deceptive and could be misleading if we let down our guards and be influenced to deviate from our strategy of cautious optimism that have brought Nigeria this far.”
The PTF also expressed delight over the recovery of the Lagos Commissioner for Health, Professor Akin Abayomi, urging those who have recovered to share their story whenever the opportunity arises.
“Particularly, we note with delight, the report that Prof. Akin Abayomi, the Lagos State Commissioner for Health, like many other Nigerians, has recovered from the infection.
“The PTF congratulates all those that have recovered and urge them to tell their stories,” he stated.
Boss also stated that as at August 28, 2020, a total of 173 candidate vaccines were under evaluation, while 33 were under clinical evaluation (8 at phase 3 trials), and 143 candidate vaccines in pre-clinical evaluation
He equally stated that Nigeria was seeing a gradual shift in areas of high infection burden with Plateau State reporting the highest number of confirmed cases.
He said this could be related to increased testing by indigenes of the state.
“However, we also need to look at the flip side – that there are a number of highly undetected cases lying around which we need to discover and deal with early.
“As the PTF has always maintained, early testing, detection, tracing and treatment remains the second-best option for dealing with this pandemic, with the first being staying safe.
“In this wise, we implore Nigerians to get tested and present cases requiring treatment early to reduce avoidable fatalities,” he emphasised.
