Gauging the laboratory responses to coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) in Africa

• Published date: 01 November 2020
• Author: Festus Ayotunde Odeyemi,Ibrahim Ayoade Adekunle,Olakitan Wahab Ogunbanjo,Jamiu Bello Folorunso,Thompson Akinbolaji,Idowu Bolade Olawoye
• Date: 01 November 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2280

ACADEMIC PAPER

Gauging the laboratory responses to coronavirus disease

(COVID-19) in Africa

Festus Ayotunde Odeyemi

1

|Ibrahim Ayoade Adekunle

2

|

Olakitan Wahab Ogunbanjo

3

|Jamiu Bello Folorunso

1

|

Thompson Akinbolaji

4

|Idowu Bolade Olawoye

5

1

Medical Laboratory Department, Directorate

of Health Services, Olabisi Onabanjo

University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, Nigeria

2

Department of Economics, Olabisi Onabanjo

University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, Nigeria

3

Pharmacy Department, Directorate of Health

Services, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-

Iwoye, Ogun State, Nigeria

4

Biomedical Services, American Red Cross,

Southern Region, Douglasville, Georgia

5

African Centre of Excellence for Genomics of

Infectious Diseases (ACEGID), Redeemer's

University, Ede, Ogun State, Nigeria

Correspondence

Festus Ayotunde Odeyemi, Medical

Laboratory Department, Directorate of Health

Services., Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-

Iwoye, Ogun State, Nigeria.

Email: festus.odeyemi@oouagoiwoye.edu.ng

The rampaging effect of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Africa is huge and have

impacted almost every area of life. Across African states, there exist variations in the

laboratory measures adopted, and these heterogeneous approaches, in turn, deter-

mines the successes or otherwise recorded. In this study, we assessed the various

forms of laboratory responses to the containment, risk analyses, structures and fea-

tures of COVID-19 inhigh incidence African countries(Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt,

Ghana, Algeria, Morocco, etc.) to aid better and efficient laboratory responses to the

highly infectious diseases.

1|INTRODUCTION

The critical roles of laboratory testing cannot be overemphasised in

the prevention and management of infectious diseases outbreak

(Bedford et al., 2020). Laboratory professionals play essential roles in

diagnosis, epidemiologic surveillance and monitoring of patients with

suspected and established cases of severe acute respiratory syndrome

coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, which is the virus strain that

causes coronavirus disease (COVID-19; Lippi & Plebani, 2020). The

effort of the laboratory professionals and the country strategies in the

containment, risk analysis, structures and features of the novel coro-

navirus deserves understudying for some reasons. For a disease con-

dition that has been categorised as transmitting from human-to-

human, there is a greater need for quick detection and subsequent

isolation in order to flatten the curve and reduce the strain on the

medical facilities that are largely dilapidated in Africa. In other climes,

clustering analysis is an essential pre-requisite to epidemic manage-

ment and care surveillance aimed at the efficacy of treatment proce-

dures. By identifying the cluster or group of society that are most

vulnerable and susceptible to viral loads induced by contagion with

pathogens from the virus, further care and treatment procedure can

be established. In recent findings, O, rhesus D positive (+) individuals

are reported to have more excellent antibodies to resist infestation of

coronavirus. By assessing the laboratory response to COVID-19 in

Africa, this study aims to establish the depth of COVID-19 growth

and subsequent policy recommendations, particularly as it relates to

easing lockdown directives in place in most Africa countries. It informs

the government and stakeholders restrictive measures and the desire

to return to a healthy life.

COVID-19 is an infectious disease of the novel coronavirus. The

COVID-19 pandemic is the third eventful zoonotic coronavirus dis-

ease outbreak in 20 years (Mackenzie & Smith, 2020). The infectious

disease succeeded in the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome out-

break (SARS) in 2002–2003 and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome

(MERS) outbreak in 2012 (Poon & Peiris, 2020). The current pandemic

emerged in Wuhan, China and has spread rapidly around the world

(Adnan, Khan, Kazmi, Bashir, & Siddique, 2020) with an estimated

over 3 million cases globally with 259,474 deaths, above 1.6 million

Received: 3 June 2020Revised: 6 July 2020Accepted: 10 July 2020

DOI: 10.1002/pa.2280

J Public Affairs. 2020;20:e2280.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/pa© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd1of9

https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2280