My goal in this blog is to give a snippet analysis of Uganda vs The Netherlands’s mortality rate in the wake of COVID19 and make some deductions accordingly.

There is no doubt that the impact of Corvid 19 has brought the world to a stand still with some 37.4 million cases globally causing 1.8 million additional deaths to our already ailing world by October 2020 so far.

It is painful yet ironic when talking about this pandemic and Africa. One could imagine, now that this global crisis hits everyone especially the so called developed countries, that lazy and miss guided African politicians would finally be pushed to improve health care at home since their luxurious jets cannot find a safe landing abroad!

It will shock you to discover that meanwhile the world is racing for remedies, ‘my fellows’ are busy sacrificing their economies without any stimuli while passively waiting for vaccines to arrive from abroad at an expense that will further directly or indirectly cost their people’s independence.

I am always nervous when African leaders copy paste foreign policies or want to strictly adhere to commands from multinational organizations that favor their funders before their dependents in Africa such as the world health organization without doing due diligence on the local applicability of such commands.

Since Corvid came to Africa and Uganda in specific , regardless of the overwhelming ailment from many communicable diseases like malaria that are killing millions, all attention has shifted to Corvid, ignoring these major killers, the whole priority has been almost abandoned in favor of another milder flu, yes that’s what corvid is to Ugandans compared to Malaria or AIDS.

Uganda vs Netherlands mortality scenarios;

To be specific, Uganda’s adult mortality rate is generally among the highest in the world. In 2015, it was reported at 34.1 per 100 people, compared to 10.4 per 100 people and by 2018, it was was reported at 233.7% females and 302% Male’ per 1000 people compared to 5.2% male and 6.5% female in the Netherlands.

So generally, more people already die in Uganda as compared to the Netherlands with or without COVID 19.

Life expectancy in Uganda is 62,52 compared to 81.56 years in the Netherlands .

COMMON KILLER DISEASES IN THE WORLD VS AFRICA

Traditionally speaking, that is, before Corvid 19. Out of the 56 million people who died globally in 2017, 17.56 million died of cardiovascular disease which together with cancer are the leading cause of death in developed countries. The second killer globally is cancer after annihilating some 9.56million people from the face of the earth. While communicable diseases like malaria, HIV/AIDS etc, are the leading killers in Africa.

Netherlands

As at 2019, its reported that just over 150,000 people died in the Netherlands, with mainly cancer accounting to 31% and 25& died of cardiovascular disease; in specific, with being neoplasms among men, disease of the circulatory system among as well as disease of the respiratory system; cancer in general.

In 2020  the situation changed this curve where by on top of the above deadly killers, 175,000 people contracted contracted corvid 19 and 6,584 dead by October 2020, with the worse affected being 50 years and above.

Uganda

In Uganda, clinically diagnosed malaria is the leading cause of both morbidity and mortality rates, accounting for 30-50%of outpatient visits at health facilities, 15-20%of all hospital admissions and up to 20% of all hospital deaths.

Malaria is endemic in approximately95% of the country, affecting over 90% of the population. Uganda having the 3rd highest  number of annual malaria death in Africa and world over, with approximately 16 million cases reported in 2013, and 13.4 million in 2019, and 10,500 deaths reported annually.

Corvid cases in Uganda have been reported at 9,538, with only 86 deaths, note that 80% of Uganda’s population is below 30years compared to 28% of Dutch youth.

“NUMBERS DON’T LIE!”

From the above numbers a lot of facts can be deduced

1 Dutch life expectancy is higher than Ugandan life expectancy therefore Uganda should do more to fill the gap even though they have to rise up to the occasion of Corvid 19

2) While looking for statistics, Dutch data was readily available because systems are developed while not all data may be reported in Uganda that means the mortality figures in Uganda could be much higher than reported.

3) The two countries already have different killers therefore. this should be reflected in their Corvid 19 response

4) The situation of COVID 19 is more adverse in the Netherlands than in Uganda therefore more drastic measures are required in the Netherlands than Uganda, yet currently this is the opposite

5) The Ugandan response based on fear at the expense of the entire economy is a matter of misguided priority. This has worsened  the poverty levels and suffering as many have lost their jobs during lockdown, and minimized the country’s effort to fight malaria and other deadlier communicable diseases.

It is not correct to sacrifice the whole economy and cause such loss of jobs and increased suffering because of a mild flu like COVID 19 which has so far killed only 89 people while ignoring the giant killer Malaria which will kill millions in 2020 alone.

Ugandans should stop blindly adhering to fear mongering from the so called developed world which wants everyone to follow their example even when they are lost themselves.

The corvid 19 experience is an eye opener to Uganda to be confident of herself and maintain her priorities in the wake of global storms.

Imagine, currently only 89 people have died of Corvid, that means they are not always the underdogs. Stand your ground to your priorities to minimize suffering as much as possible, borrow example from leaders like HE Magufuli  of TZ who has take a very positive approach, charting his own path in corvid response in such a way that the economy remained intact even with enormous pressure from so called experts, he did his own tests to check the accuracy of testing kits for instance, a process that informed his relentless efforts not to cause lockdown pain to his own people and yet indeed, no strange deaths are happening in Tanzania.