(Edinburgh University Global Health Society, 2020-12) Chu, Kathryn; Reddy, Ché L; Makasa, Emmanuel
The COVID-19 pandemic has swept across the globe at an unprecedented
pace. The first COVID-19 case arrived in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) on February
28, 2020, and there are over 600 000 cases spread across the continent
[1]. The World Health Organisation has predicted up to a quarter of a billion infections
on the continent [2]. In preparation, SSA countries have sharply downscaled
non-COVID-19 health services, including emergency and essential surgical
health care (EESC). However, surgical conditions contribute up to a third of the
global burden of disease [3].