Thread by @michaelmina_lab

#COVID19 is overlooked by the world as as urgent a crisis in Africa as every where else

We continue to make the same mistakes of confusing a lack of testing for a lack of cases.

In this study in Zambia, ~20% of deaths were found to be COVID related!

1/

medrxiv.org/content/10.110…

To determine this, the researchers performed a systematic analysis of swabbing and running PCR on post-mortem individuals.

These ppl would not have been detected/confirmed as having COVID otherwise and thus not officially reported owing to a lack of testing infrastructure

2/x

As @brookenichols has discussed, rapid Ag testing isnt only a powerful tool for frequent use to slow spread (as I’ve discussed) - it is also a powerful tool for less resourced countries to access and massively scale up testing to get formal estimates of transmission/cases

3/x

This is essential. Global resources generally are applied in some data driven fashion. When #COVID19 cases and deaths are happening invisibly for lack of testing, the decision makers have too little to go on and the nations who may need aid the most go unnoticed.

4/x

This happens all too often in poorer communities and nations.

IMO, rapid Ag tests are as or more important to supplant an absence of diagnostic testing in least resourced settings.

We should ensure rapid tests are available esp in low resourced setting, at very low cost.

5/5

And to make matters worse... there is this too....

https://twitter.com/michaelmina_lab/status/1344148194851229696