A colleague and friend of mine, Achilleus Uchegbu, sent to me a letter written by Dr. Shivra Ayyadural to president Donald Trump of the United States of America (USA).
Dr. Ayyadural claims he invented the email; Founder, Systems Health; Chairman/CEO, Cytosolve, Inc and EchoMall, Inc.
The four-page letter titled: Immune and Economic Health For America, discuses Trump’s administration’s handling of the novel coronavirus pandemic, which as at today, has killed about 142,800 Americans, affected 3,833,716 with 1,775,450 recoveries.
Compare these figures with Nigeria’s and you’d get where I am going.
As at today, we have a total of 36,107 infections, 778 deaths, 14,938 recoveries and 20,391 active cases. When you compare these figures with America’s, ours pale into insignificance.
But that’s not my story.
My story is what Dr. Ayyadural said in the last two paragraphs of his letter and the implications or lack of them for “third world” countries to which we belong.
He said: “finally, concerning Covid-19, we should ask: why is it that “third world” countries such as Chad and Djibouti, which have no where near the medical facilities of the United States of America, have only one (1) Covid-19 infection, and ZERO deaths?
Perhaps it’s because they get food right out of the ground providing them enormous Vitamin A, and they are out in the sun all day, working and playing, getting tons of Vitamin D”.
Of all he said in that letter, these two paragraphs caught my attention because they concern us in Nigeria too.
I believe it’s germane to ask why our death rates are so low compared to the advanced world despite the fact that we are not making serious efforts to stop the spread of the virus even with near absence of quality and affordable healthcare.
What we do in the fight to contain the virus could be described as scratching the surface because majority of the people still don’t believe the virus exists and are lethargic to observing the prescribed protocols.
It is not that we are hoping that it gets worse and kills us in the thousands before we get more serious, but it remains as curious why our figures are as low.
I think our infectious disease experts owe it a duty to study this trend and come out with their findings. I believe governments at all levels need to sponsor researches on this, even as we battle to stall the spread of the deadly disease.
Many people claim the immune system of the average African is stronger than their counterparts in civilised world because we live in a virus infested environment and that virus has become our neighbours.
Others say it is because we suffer from malaria and typhoid and take a lot of medicines to cure these. Therefore, we develop immunity against other viruses.
I’m neither a physician nor an infectious disease expert. So, I don’t know. But I guess it is worth interrogation to ascertain why and to help us plan our treatments and handling of the disease because it’s not abating at all.
If you look at selected figures from across Africa, you’d understand the import of Dr. Ayyadural’s poser.
Take a look at some:
- Ghana: 145 deceased, 23,045 recoveries and 3,871 active cases.
- South Africa: 4,982 deceased, 182,230 recoveries and 163,700 active cases.
- Ethiopia: 163 deceased, 2,430 recoveries and 6,554 active cases.
Juxtaposed against the USA and other Western countries as well as those of Asia, Oceania and the far East, we will see that the virus is not ravaging Africa as it is doing in these countries. Why?
So, what is the key thing about our luck?
Let our infectious disease experts tell us.
As another respected friend of mine said, “Coronavirus is targeting privileged people who don’t come out to take the sun freely.
Haven’t you also seen a pattern where it is staying far from the hinterlands where people can rush to their backyard garden and gather things for a meal?
When we get tired, we’ll start realising why it’s not killing us as expected. I remember that we’ve beaten all timelines for dying like flies like WHO kept predicting. I’m even tired of the whole thing now”!
This is the feeling in many quarters which needs serious interrogation.
•Source: Facebook