Scoping Review and Expert Reflections: Coronavirus Disease 2019 – Preparedness and Response in Selected Countries of East Africa, West Africa, and Southeast Asia.
The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak, started in the Hubei province of China in December 2019. On January 31, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a worldwide pandemic. We wondered what countries in Africa and South-East Asia had done to prevent infectious disease, specifically, COVID-19, from impacting the population of specific
countries in that region, and what disease control measures were successful. Expert reflections on findings could guide continued successful public health approaches in managing this complex infectious disease pandemic.
As we reported in our earlier publication, the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic shows how disease outbreaks can connect people in different regions of the world in a significant way. The interconnectedness of people and disease is a hallmark of the concept and practice of global health. In fact, Burkle reminds us: “The emergence of complex global public health crises
such as climate change and extremes, biodiversity loss, emergencies of scarcity, rapid unsustainable urbanization, migrant and refugee surges, domestic and international terrorism, cyber-security, the civilianization of war and conflict, and the global rise of resistant antibiotics has resulted in an unprecedented rise in direct and indirect mortality and morbidity”.
However, an increase in the number of cases within a few weeks raised public health concerns.6
The existence of diseases caused by coronaviruses are not, however, new. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) virus epidemic of 2003 was thought to be an animal virus from an uncertain animal reservoir and transmitted to other animals (possibly originating from bats).
Public Health Open J. 2020; 5(3): 49-57. doi: 10.17140/PHOJ-5-148
