National estimates of critical care capacity in 54 African countries

Abstract

<jats:p>Background The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is an emerging threat across the African continent where national critical care capacity is underdeveloped or unknown. In this paper, we compile data on critical care capacity -- including number of ICU beds, number of ventilators, and number of physician and non-physician anesthesia providers -- for 54 African countries. Methods Data was compiled from a variety of resources including World Bank databases, local and international news media, government reports, local healthcare workers, and published scientific literature. Results Overall, data on number of ICU beds were available for 49 (91%) countries and on number of ventilators for 46 (85%) countries, respectively. Data on physician anesthesia providers and non-physician providers was available for 47 (87%) and 37 (69%) of the 54 African countries. Conclusion Most low and lower middle-income African countries have limited critical care capacity available to cope with potential surges in critical care demand due to COVID-19 outbreaks. Keywords: COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, critical care capacity, ICU, ventilators, Africa</jats:p>

Cost-effectiveness of public health strategies for COVID-19 epidemic control in South Africa: a microsimulation modelling study

“…25 We specified the model to reflect the number of available hospital and intensive care unit beds in KwaZulu-Natal, 15 and results were similar when we further restricted bed availability to that of other settings in sub-Saharan Africa. 20 Contact tracing and community-based screening have been frequently used for case-finding in LMICs. 26 Many sub-Saharan African countries are thus theoretically poised to implement such interventions through established networks of community health workers.…”

“…To extrapolate to other settings, we restricted hospital and intensive care unit bed availability to the mean number of beds available in sub-Saharan Africa countries (22 275 hospital beds and 371 intensive care unit beds per 11 million people). 20 We did multiway sensitivity analysis in which we varied parameters that had relatively large effects in one-way sensitivity analysis, including reducing isolation centre or quarantine centre efficacy and costs to reflect the impact of home-based isolation and quarantine strategies.…”

Perceived preparedness to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic: a study with healthcare workers in Ghana

“…1 Additionally, a World Health Organization (WHO) COVID-19 readiness study found that about nine intensive care unit beds are available per one million people across the continent. 18 Ghana in particular scored 52% on the International Health Regulations core capacity for emergency preparedness and rate the lowest score for its system for sending and receiving medical countermeasures and health personnel during a public health emergency. 19 Due to challenges like these, the United Nations (UN) has warned of the possible loss of 300,000 to 3.3 million lives in Africa due to COVID-19.…”

“…20 Healthcare providers have been disproportionately affected by the virus, with over 2,000 cases. 21 With less than one hospital bed and 0.2 physicians per 1,000 people, 16,18 the country's constrained health system presents challenges to slowing the spread of the epidemic and in maintaining an overburdened healthcare infrastructure. Yet, few studies have examined HCWs' preparedness to respond to epidemics in Ghana and none on a pandemic of this scale.…”

Cost-effectiveness of public health strategies for COVID-19 epidemic control in South Africa

“…To extrapolate to other settings, we limited the availability of hospital and ICU beds to the median numbers in countries in SSA (22,275 and 371 per 11 million people). 15 We also examined scenarios with reduced availabilities of IC/QC beds. In multi-way sensitivity analysis, we reduced the efficacies and costs of ICs/QCs to reflect the impact of home-based isolation and quarantine strategies.…”