COVID-19: time to rethink palliative care strategy in resource-poor settings

摘要

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has had an unprecedented impact on healthcare facilities and health professionals globally, especially in resource-poor settings, including those in African countries This article aims to highlight the challenges of providing palliative care in African countries and to forecast what this means in light of the public health issues surrounding COVID-19. According to the Coronavirus in Africa Tracker (BBC News, 2020), there are 925 369 confirmed cases of COVID-19 reported in Africa as of 31 July 2020, of which 19 605 are confirmed deaths. While 577947 patients are reported to have recovered, there remains a high number of active confirmed cases in the continent, at 327818. These numbers could be higher, but are underreported, due to ineffective reporting systems, the inability to diagnose on a large scale and people not recognising the symptoms of COVID-19. With the anticipation that COVID-19 will have devastating effects on Africa (Hopman et al, 2020; Nkengasong and Mankoula, 2020), this will cause a surge in the need for palliative care and medical supplies. The World Health Organization (2018) defines palliative care as any support that improves the quality of life of patients and their families experiencing life-threatening illnesses, through the prevention and relief of suffering, whether physical, psychosocial or spiritual care.