COVID-19; Intervention; Public health; SARS-CoV-2; Spatial analyses; West Africa; Africa, Western/epidemiology; Benin; Burkina Faso; Communicable Disease Control; Cote d'Ivoire; Guinea; Humans; Mali/epidemiology; Niger; Senegal/epidemiology; Pandemics; Africa, Western; Mali; Senegal; Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
Abstract :
[en] BACKGROUND: In early March 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic hit West Africa. In response, countries in the region quickly set up crisis management committees and implemented drastic measures to stem the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. The objective of this article is to analyse the epidemiological evolution of COVID-19 in seven Francophone West African countries (Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal) as well as the public health measures decided upon during the first 7 months of the pandemic.
METHODS: Our method is based on quantitative and qualitative data from the pooling of information from a COVID-19 data platform and collected by a network of interdisciplinary collaborators present in the seven countries. Descriptive and spatial analyses of quantitative epidemiological data, as well as content analyses of qualitative data on public measures and management committees were performed.
RESULTS: Attack rates (October 2020) for COVID-19 have ranged from 20 per 100,000 inhabitants (Benin) to more than 94 per 100,000 inhabitants (Senegal). All these countries reacted quickly to the crisis, in some cases before the first reported infection, and implemented public measures in a relatively homogeneous manner. None of the countries implemented country-wide lockdowns, but some implemented partial or local containment measures. At the end of June 2020, countries began to lift certain restrictive measures, sometimes under pressure from the general population or from certain economic sectors.
CONCLUSION: Much research on COVID-19 remains to be conducted in West Africa to better understand the dynamics of the pandemic, and to further examine the state responses to ensure their appropriateness and adaptation to the national contexts.
Disciplines :
Public health, health care sciences & services
Author, co-author :
Bonnet, E; Résiliences / PRODIG, French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development, 32 Avenue Henri Varagnat, 93140, Bondy, France
Le Marcis, F; Triangle (UMR 5206), ENS de Lyon, TransVIHMI (UMI 233), French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development, Lyon, France
Faye, A; Institut de Santé et Développement (ISED), Université Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar, Senegal
Sambieni, N E; Faculty of Letters, Arts and Human Sciences (FLASH) and Laboratoire de recherches sur les dynamiques sociales et le développement local (Lasdel), University of Parakou, Parakou, Benin
Fournet, F; MIVEGEC (Univ Montpellier, IRD, CNRS), French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development, 911 Avenue Agropolis, BP 64501, 34394, Montpellier Cedex 5, France
Boyer, F; Research Unit "Migration and Society", French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development, Associated with the Study and Research Group on Migration, Spaces and Societies, Abdou Moumouni University, Niamey, Niger
Coulibaly, A; Faculty of Medicine and Odontostomatology, University of Sciences, Techniques and Technologies, Bamako, Mali
Kadio, K; Institute for Health Science Research (IRSS), Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso ; Institute of Research for Development, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso
Diongue, F B; Institut de Santé et Développement (ISED), Université Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar, Senegal
Ridde, V ; Centre Population et Développement (Ceped), IRD, French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development and Université de Paris, Inserm ERL 1244, 45 rue des Saints-Pères, 75006, Paris, France. valery.ridde@ird.fr ; Institut de Santé et Développement, Université Cheikh Anta Diop, Dakar, Senegal. valery.ridde@ird.fr
Language :
English
Title :
The COVID-19 pandemic in francophone West Africa: from the first cases to responses in seven countries.
The platform https://www.covid19afrique.com was designed and developed by the Institute for Research on Sustainable Development (IRD) researchers. IRD has financed its hosting and updating since the beginning of the COVID-19 epidemic. Frédéric Le Marcis receives funding from the action research project in support of the African response to the Covid-19 epidemic funded by the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) as part of the “Covid-19 - Health in Common” initiative and from the Innovative Medicines Initiative 2 Joint Undertaking under grant agreement No. 800176. This Joint Undertaking receives support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme and the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Association.We sincerely thank all the contributors to the platformhttps://www.covid19afrique.com/ (https://www.covid19afrique.com) and the people who kindly shared documents and data that made this article possible. In particular, we thank Oriane Bodson (Benin), Chiarella Mattern (Madagascar), Isidore Sieleunou (Cameroon), Abdouramane Coulibaly (Mali), Anne Bekelynck (RCI), Fr?d?ric Le Marcis (Guinea), Flore-Apoline Roy (Senegal), Aloys Zongo (Niger), IRD Representatives in West and Central Africa, Fran?ois Parenty (France), Fondation Paul Ango Ela (Cameroon), Marie Morelle (Cameroon), Ibrahim Sana (Burkina Faso), Cloudly Yours (France, Accommodation), Florence Fournet (C?te d?Ivoire), Florence Boyer (Niger), Marjorie Le Bars (Mali), Dahab Manoufi (Chad), Sebastien Segniagbeto (Togo), Ousmane Koita (Mali), Gilles Salaun (France), Fatoumata Binetou Diongue Lopes (Senegal), Philippe Tous (Mauritania), S?verine Carillon (Senegal). The authors would like to thank Jack Stennett for editing support.
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