Hundreds of millions of Africans lack basic means of preventing SARS-CoV-2 transmission, finds global study

Press release issued: 24 August 2021

Millions of people across the African continent are at risk of contracting COVID-19 because of a lack of the most basic public health tools to protect themselves - including the essentials of soap and water, finds a new University of Bristol-led study published in Epidemiology & Infection. The global research collaborative finds almost 900 million Africans live without on-site water, while 700 million people lack in-home soap/washing facilities.

These measures – known as non-pharmacological public health interventions (NPIs) and including physical distancing or isolation at home to prevent transmission – are among the simplest and least expensive methods to slow the spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. Yet huge numbers of Africa’s roughly 1.4 billion people do not have access to these tools, researchers said.

The findings, led by an international team including Professor David Gordon at the Bristol Poverty Institute and Dr Timothy Brewer at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), analysed nationally representative household demographic and socioeconomic data, which were used to create vulnerability indices regarding NPIs.

Read the full University of Bristol press release: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/news/2021/august/covid-in-africa-study.html.

Further information

Paper

Housing, sanitation and living conditions affecting SARS-CoV-2 prevention interventions in 54 African countries. Brewer TF et al (2021). Epidemiology and Infection 149, e183, 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0950268821001734