Although progress is being made against the COVID-19 pandemic in the sub-Saharan African countries where our partners operate hospitals and clinics, the situation remains dim for millions of children throughout sub-Saharan Africa, according to a report published in January by JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) Pediatrics and led by a University of Pittsburg infectious diseases epidemiologist.
“Children in sub-Saharan Africa who are hospitalized with COVID-19 are dying at a rate far greater than children in U.S. and Europe,” the report concludes.
“Although our study looked at data from earlier in the pandemic, the situation hasn’t changed much for the children of Africa — if anything, it is expected to be worsening with the global emergence of the highly contagious Omicron variant,” said lead author Jean B. Nachega, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., associate professor of infectious diseases and microbiology and epidemiology at Pitt’s Graduate School of Public Health.
“Vaccines are not yet widely available, and pediatric intensive care is not easily accessible.”
Nachega noted recent progress on increasing the COVID-19 vaccine supply in Africa but emphasized that those vaccines are not yet widely available and only about 5 percent of the continent’s population has been fully vaccinated.
“COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy is a global issue, and Africa is no exception,” he said. “It is imperative that evidence-based public health campaigns address concerns in accessible, trustworthy ways so that there is high vaccine uptake as soon as it is available.”
At Bread and Water for Africa®, we are doing our part to help alleviate pain and suffering – and even death – of tens of thousands of patients who are being treated for COVID-19, and many more common infections and diseases by our partners who operate hospitals and clinics in the sub-Saharan African countries including Cameroon, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi and Sierra Leone by shipping them medicines and medical supplies and equipment.
Among them is the health center in the Taninnahun Health Center in Sierra Leone that is operated by our partner there, Rural Youth Development Organization, which serves a community where 80 percent of the population lives in absolute poverty with incomes of less than the equivalent of $1 per day.
In the past two years, thanks to our supporters, we have shipped several 40 and 20-foot containers filled medicines and medical supplies for use in RYDO-SL clinics, implemented a COVID-19 face mask project providing materials, and providing employment to tailors to sew reusable face masks, as well as implement a coronavirus relief project providing rural women and youth with training in business and management skills to start their own small business in the midst of the pandemic.
As we have done for decades, we at Bread and Water for Africa® will continue to provide these dozens of hospitals and clinics which serve their communities with low-cost medical care for those who can afford to pay a small token amount, and free for those who cannot, to help prevent death due to COVID-19, as well as the myriad of other tropical and waterborne diseases such as malaria and cholera which plague these rural villages – all made possible thanks to our compassionate supporters.