COVID-19 in Africa: Survey Analysis of Impact on Health-Care Workers

Abstract

As coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) spreads across Africa, little is known about the impact of the pandemic on health-care workers (HCWs) in the region. We designed an anonymous survey distributed via e-mail and phone messaging to 13 countries through the African Hepatitis B Network. We obtained 489 analyzable responses. We used risk ratio analysis to quantify the relationship between binary variables and χ2 testing to quantify the statistical significance of these relationships. Median age of respondents was 30 years (interquartile range, 26–36 years) and 63% were physicians. The top three sources of information used by HCWs for COVID-19 management included the Ministry of Health of each country, the WHO, and social media. Forty-nine percent reported a decrease in income since the start of the pandemic, with the majority experiencing between a 1% and a 25% salary reduction. Sixty-six percent reported some access to personal protective equipment; only 14% reported appropriate access. Moreover, one third of respondents reported no availability of ventilators at their facility. Strikingly, the percentage of HCWs reporting never feeling depressed changed from 61% before the pandemic to 31% during the pandemic, with a corresponding increase in daily depressive symptoms from 2% to 20%. Most respondents (> 97%) correctly answered survey questions about COVID-19 symptoms, virus transmission, and prevention. Our survey revealed African HCWs face a variety of personal and professional context-dependent challenges. Ongoing support of HCWs through and after the COVID-19 pandemic is essential.

SARS-CoV-2 infection and antibody seroprevalence in routine surveillance patients, healthcare workers and general population in Kita region, Mali: an observational study 2020–2021

“…Measures of increased risk of infection in HCWs versus the general population have been demonstrated in many global studies, with adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) provision and use being key to minimising this risk 15 17 21 24. In resource-constrained settings such as Kita, key tools for protecting HCWs, along with early disease detection, are often limited or absent in Africa 25 26. Measures to improve protection for doctors and nurses, especially considering low levels of health staff availability in the country—in 2017 Mali had only six qualified providers per 10 000 inhabitants—would be pertinent 27…”

Psychopathological states among Congolese health workers during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic: links with emotion regulation and social support

“…A first striking result is the self-reported lack of material and psychological support offered to health workers during the COVID-19 pandemic: although participants reported being informed about the COVID-19 pandemic, most declared not having enough protective personal equipment. That lack of personal equipment has been reported not only among other African countries (Quadri et al, 2021 ) but also in many other countries (Delgado et al, 2020 ; Hakim et al, 2021 ; Martin-Delgado et al, 2020 ; Savoia et al, 2020 ; Tabah et al, 2020 ). Participants also reported not having enough opportunities to benefit from psychological support.…”

“…Many studies in Western countries and in Asia have reported a high prevalence of mental health problems among health workers facing COVID-19 (Lai et al, 2020 ; Li et al, 2020 ; Liang, Chen, et al, 2020 ; Liang, Wu, et al, 2020 ; Liu et al, 2020 ). However, data from Sub-Saharan Africa are scarce (Quadri et al, 2021 ), while the pandemic has also dangerously spread over the African continent.…”

“…Acute post-traumatic stress disorder and depression are two of the most reported psychiatric disorders among health professionals in frontline of epidemic outbreaks (Preti et al, 2020 ). In Africa, studies have reported high rates of psychological disorders both in general populations (up to 45% for depression) (Chen et al, 2021 ) and among health care workers (up to 20% for depression) following the COVID-19 pandemic (Quadri et al, 2021 ). When not addressed, poor mental health among health workers can have devastating impacts on their psychological and physical health, hence having a global negative consequence on their personal and professional life (e.g.…”

Artificial intelligence-based prediction for cancer-related outcomes in Africa: Status and potential refinements

“…With more oncological AI platforms being proposed in the post-COVID-19 era, it may be that the refocusing of experienced health personnel towards pandemic control did motivate the search for automated tools aimed at facilitating the diagnosis, treatment selection, and prognostication of cancer patients [ 22 - 24 ]. Also, these tools may have been proposed with the aim of increasing the efficiency of specialists, easing the case burden caused by a worsening health provider-to-patient ratio [ 25 ], and limiting person-to-person contact to clinical encounters of utmost importance [ 26 ].…”