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Kenya hopes in herd immunit: Senegal example

Few are respecting rules, cases should be much more

28-11-2020 by redazione

Kenya relies on herd immunity and comforting signs are coming from Senegal.
While the country until yesterday was travelling at a lower rate than two or three weeks ago, and in the last 24 hours it has returned above 15% and intensive therapy is once again filling up, citizens are continuing their behaviour almost entirely unaware of the presence of the virus.
With the exception of some commercial and wealthy areas of the capital Nairobi, it is enough to go to rural areas, small towns or the coast to realise that social distances and hygiene rules are poorly respected and that masks are worn under the chin, just in case of being in the vicinity of police or surveillance officers and having time to adjust them correctly.
This certainly contributed to the propagation of Covid-19 in Kenya, but as the Senegalese experts explain, it could also be the plausible explanation that the pandemic in Africa did not arrive with the dangerous power that invested Europe and the United States, for example.
The similarities between the two countries, and also others in the Sub-Saharan area, suggests that the lower average age of the population is another important reason and the timely containment measures adopted (thanks to the fact that the virus arrived two months late in Africa) are the reason for a catastrophe (in the words of the WHO) that has been averted for now.
Abdoulaye Bousso, one of the heads of the Government's Covid-19 Emergency Task Force, called into question the immunity of the flock, although not studied at the desk, as a possible explanation for last August's halt to the high numbers.
"At this point, perhaps the issue of immunity must be brought to the fore," Bousso said.
 Last month in Touba, the second largest city in the country, the "Gran Magal", one of the most important traditional and religious festivals not only in Senegal, was held as every year, with a pilgrimage that in the past has reached even 3 million tourists and believers. This year, however, there were a few hundred thousand on the streets of Touba and all without masks or even respecting social distances. And yet, the National Health officials explain, the cases of positivity and symptomatic cases have not increased. Senegal is proceeding with very few infections (until yesterday the number of cases was almost 16 thousand compared to 80 thousand in Kenya and the number of dead was 332).
It has to be said, as the Senegalese representative for the WHO Nsenga Ngoy recalled, that Senegal is "one of the model countries in terms of implementation of Covid-19's prevention measures and has reaped the benefits".
The Government immediately closed borders, schools and mosques when the virus first struck in March, as well as banning large gatherings and travel between cities and imposing a night curfew.
It also provided medical care for patients suffering from Covid-19, and aggressively isolated people who had come into contact with positive cases.
But as in Kenya, he was able to do little for the citizens who, scattered throughout the territory and with their precariousness problems, followed almost no anti-virus measures ordered by the Ministry of Health, except in the very first months after the lockdown.
Experts are convinced that 60% of Senegalese have already acquired immunity.
Massamba Diop, head of the SOS Medicine Senegal health organisation, pointed out that most of the infections recorded concern people between 20 and 60 years of age, and that it is patients over 65 years of age who are more likely to die than Covid-19.
"It has spread throughout the country, we are certain," said Diop, "it is no coincidence that a few months ago the percentage of positives was about 30% compared to swabs carried out, whereas today we are around 1%! We can't prove that the flock immunity worked, but we have started a serological study that in a few weeks time will give surprising results".
This is undoubtedly what Kenya is hoping for as well, looking to Dakar with optimism and hope.

TAGS: gregge kenyaimmunità kenyapandemia kenya

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