Beyond the Disease: Contextualized Implications of the COVID-19 Pandemic for Children and Young People Living in Eastern and Southern Africa

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has created extraordinary challenges and prompted remarkable social changes around the world. The effects of COVID-19 and the public health control measures that have been implemented to mitigate its impact are likely to be accompanied by a unique set of consequences for specific subpopulations living in low-income countries that have fragile health systems and pervasive social-structural vulnerabilities. This paper discusses the implications of COVID-19 and related public health interventions for children and young people living in Eastern and Southern Africa. Actionable prevention, care, and health promotion initiatives are proposed to attenuate the negative effects of the pandemic and governmentenforced movement restrictions on children and young people.

Hope and well-being in vulnerable contexts during the COVID-19 pandemic: does religious coping matter?

“…Hopeful thinking may be a valuable resource for promoting well-being amid the complications of the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in under-resourced contexts where the implications of a public health crisis and lockdowns are likely to be exacerbated (Govender et al, 2020). To shed light on the dialectical nature of hopeful thinking in vulnerable contexts that may be disproportionately affected by the consequences of the public health crisis, one purpose of the current set of studies was to examine the relation between (trait and state) hope and well-being during homebound restrictions tied to the COVID-19 pandemic in Colombia and South Africa.…”

Building Resilient Health Systems: Patient Safety during COVID-19 and Lessons for the Future

“…• People centred care: Four articles discussed, more holistic health services provision based on people needs and epidemiology rather than purely disease specific vertical approach with inclusion of mental health services, geriatric and palliative care which are rather neglected areas in India currently (Edward et al, 2020;Lele & Patwardhan, 2020;Marchand et al, 2020;Patricia et al, 2020). • Equity in access: Three articles highlighted inequity in access to services during COVID-19 times and reinforced the need for additional mechanisms to improve coverage of health services such as supplemental immunisation, catch-up campaigns, home delivery of medicines and mobile van clinics at remote places for poor and marginalised groups (Barnabas et al, 2020;Govender et al, 2020;Wang & Tang, 2020). • Patient and family engagement hold the key: Five articles demonstrated, the importance of empowering patients using health literacy programmes including, behavioural change communication strategies, patient groups involvement in development of service delivery policies and strategies and IT/mobile based grievance reprisal system (Daniel et al, 2020;Elwyn & Price, 2020;Johari et al, 2020;Kuriakose et al, 2020;McCarron et al, 2020).…”

The COVID-19 pandemic and child malnutrition in sub-Saharan Africa: A scoping review

“…The COVID-19 pandemic caused an undisguised shock to the economies of SSA (Roberton et al, 2020;Headey et al, 2020). In particular, the informal sector of certain SSA-economies, which generates income for many of the region's families, suffered from the pandemic, making it impossible for large parts of the population to earn a secure income (Govender et al, 2020). According to Govender et al (2020), the losses in income and the increased unemployment rates resulted from the necessary stringent public health control measures that were disruptive for numerous workers in the informal sector.…”

“…In particular, the informal sector of certain SSA-economies, which generates income for many of the region's families, suffered from the pandemic, making it impossible for large parts of the population to earn a secure income (Govender et al, 2020). According to Govender et al (2020), the losses in income and the increased unemployment rates resulted from the necessary stringent public health control measures that were disruptive for numerous workers in the informal sector. It can be argued that many businesses in the informal sector released their employees without any period of contract-cancellation, instantly collapsing the hourly wage base and driving the employees and their families and children below the minimum subsistence level.…”

“…Particularly in countries such as Zimbabwe, which already recorded elevated malnutrition rates in children before the pandemic, the informal employment structure, alongside layoffs in the formal sector, contributed substantially to the rapid worsening of malnutrition rates (Govender et al, 2020).…”