Africa’s young and rural population may limit spread and severity of coronavirus, study says
- A large youth population may lead to more infections but most ‘will be asymptomatic or mild’, according to the study
- But the study warns many infected individuals may not display symptoms and will risk infecting more people
Millions of Africans may be infected by the coronavirus in coming months, but the continent’s young and rural population may help limit the spread and severity, a new report says.
A study by medical journal BMJ Global Health said a large youth population may lead to more infections but “most of these infections will be asymptomatic or mild, and will probably go undetected”.
The study conducted last month in Kenya, Senegal and Ghana by academics at the University of Oxford and Pantheon-Sorbonne University in Paris said that younger populations and the low rates of urbanisation could potentially lead to a lower death toll of the epidemic in African countries than elsewhere.
The study, however, warns that “having a young population implies that many infected individuals may not display symptoms and will risk infecting more people than would symptomatic individuals”.
The report said that between 33 per cent and 50 per cent of the public will be infected during the peak of the epidemic, according to the BMJ study. One in 36 active cases in Ghana, one in 40 in Kenya and one in 42 in Senegal may be severe.
