Sep 7, 2020 01:56 AM
(This post was last modified: Sep 7, 2020 03:00 AM by C C.)
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-53998374
EXCERPTS: [...] today South Africa is emerging from its first wave of infections with a Covid-19 death rate roughly seven times lower than Britain's. ... "Most African countries don't have a peak. I don't understand why. I'm completely at sea," admitted Professor Salim Karim - widely seen as a leading voice on the pandemic response in South Africa and across the continent.
[...] For months health experts and politicians have been warning that living conditions in crowded urban communities in South Africa and beyond are likely to contribute to a rapid spread of the coronavirus. "Population density is such a key factor. If you don't have the ability to social distance, the virus spreads," said Professor Salim Karim, the head of South Africa's ministerial advisory team on Covid-19.
But some experts are now posing the question, what if the opposite is also true? What if those same crowded conditions also offer a possible solution to the mystery that has been unresolved for months? What if those conditions - they are asking - could prove to give people in South Africa, and in similar settings globally, some extra protection against Covid-19?
"It seems possible that our struggles, our poor conditions might be working in favour of African countries and our populations," said Professor Shabir Madhi, South Africa's top virologist and an important figure in the hunt for a vaccine for Covid-19.
[...Researchers speculate that...] people had been widely infected by other coronaviruses - those, for instance, responsible for many common colds - and that, as a result, they might enjoy some degree of immunity to Covid-19. "It's a hypothesis. Some level of pre-existing cross-protective immunity… might explain why the epidemic didn't unfold (the way it did in other parts of the world)," said Professor Madhi, explaining that data from scientists in the United States appeared to support the hypothesis of some pre-existing immunity... (MORE - details)
EXCERPTS: [...] today South Africa is emerging from its first wave of infections with a Covid-19 death rate roughly seven times lower than Britain's. ... "Most African countries don't have a peak. I don't understand why. I'm completely at sea," admitted Professor Salim Karim - widely seen as a leading voice on the pandemic response in South Africa and across the continent.
[...] For months health experts and politicians have been warning that living conditions in crowded urban communities in South Africa and beyond are likely to contribute to a rapid spread of the coronavirus. "Population density is such a key factor. If you don't have the ability to social distance, the virus spreads," said Professor Salim Karim, the head of South Africa's ministerial advisory team on Covid-19.
But some experts are now posing the question, what if the opposite is also true? What if those same crowded conditions also offer a possible solution to the mystery that has been unresolved for months? What if those conditions - they are asking - could prove to give people in South Africa, and in similar settings globally, some extra protection against Covid-19?
"It seems possible that our struggles, our poor conditions might be working in favour of African countries and our populations," said Professor Shabir Madhi, South Africa's top virologist and an important figure in the hunt for a vaccine for Covid-19.
[...Researchers speculate that...] people had been widely infected by other coronaviruses - those, for instance, responsible for many common colds - and that, as a result, they might enjoy some degree of immunity to Covid-19. "It's a hypothesis. Some level of pre-existing cross-protective immunity… might explain why the epidemic didn't unfold (the way it did in other parts of the world)," said Professor Madhi, explaining that data from scientists in the United States appeared to support the hypothesis of some pre-existing immunity... (MORE - details)