Preparedness and vulnerability of African countries against introductions of 2019-nCoV

Marius Gilbert; Giulia Pullano; Francesco Pinotti; Eugenio Valdano; Chiara Poletto; Pierre-Yves Boelle; Eric D'Ortenzio; Yazdan Yazdanpanah; Serge Paul Eholie; Mathias Altmann; Bernardo Gutierrez; Moritz U. G. Kraemer; Vittoria Colizza

Some countries remain however ill-equipped. Some lack the diagnostic for rapid testing for the virus, and, if cases are imported, tests will need to be performed abroad. This may critically increase the delay from identification of suspect cases to their confirmation and isolation, with an impact on possible disease transmission. WHO is currently supporting countries to improve their diagnostic capacity, previously limited to only two referral laboratories in the African region [4] , and now extended also to Nigeria [24] . Also, resources to set up quarantine rooms for suspected cases at airports and hospitals, or to trace contacts of confirmed cases, as recommended by WHO, may be scarce. Countries may not have the same capacity to manage repatriations of nationals from the province of Hubei in China, as done by resource-rich countries, because of limited resources for quarantine and isolation. The epidemic in China highlights the rapid saturation of the hospital capacity if the outbreak is not contained.