Africa has a higher death rate among critically ill Covid-19 patients than any other world region according to the latest medical data published in The Lancet medical journal.
The article in The Lancet focused on the following points, which highlighted the continent’s acute shortage of specialised medical equipment to treat critically ill patients.
A study based on 3,140 adults admitted to 64 hospitals in 10 countries between May and December 2020, suggests high mortality may be partly explained by a shortage of critical care resources and underuse of those available.
Estimates suggest that the provision of dialysis is 7 times less, and the provision of ECMO (to oxygenate blood) is 14 times lower than required to adequately treat COVID-19 patients in this study.
Findings have important implications for managing severely ill patients in resource-limited settings where a shortage of functioning equipment and specialised staff must be taken into consideration.
Death rates among adults in the 30 days after being admitted to critical care with suspected or confirmed Covid-19 infection appear considerably higher in Africa (average 48.2%; 1,483/3,077 patients) than globally (average 31.5% from a meta-analysis of 34,859 patients) according a prospective observational study from 64 hospitals in 10 African countries
A critical factor in these excess deaths may be a lack of intensive care resources and underuse of those available, say the researchers, who are all based in Africa. For example, half of patients died without being given oxygen, and while 68% of hospitals had access to renal dialysis, only 10% (330/3,073) of severely ill patients received it.