Open Up The Country

By Medipoint Clinic

Covid-19 grouped under influenza is only ranked number 3 as a serious illness after ischaemic heart disease and stroke. According to CDC sources.
In Kenya, We’ve had it for barely 3 months only so calculating the incidence may not be accurate, however, going by the numbers announced daily.. the prevalence and incidence of covid-19 is comparatively very low. We’ve had worse pandemics in the past and came out stronger without charades and dramatisation.

The mortality rate of covid-19 as per global average among the 10 most affected countries is around 5%.. in Kenya’s case, its in decimals 0.12%.

Several factors can influence this among them

1.Diffrencences in the number of people tested: with more testing, more people with milder cases are identified. This lowers the case-fatality ratio.

2.Demographics: For example, mortality tends to be higher in older populations.

3. Characteristics of the health care systems: For example, mortality may rise as hospitals become overwhelmed and have fewer resources.

4. Other factors, many of which remains unknown.
Citation..John Hopkins Corona virus Resource centre.

I do not intend to underplay the veracity of this disease but then we need to be realistic.
Covid-19 is a misdemeanor compared to other disease burdens in Kenya.

Among Kenyans most glaring diseases include

1. Typhoid 2. Cholera 3. Malaria 4. Rabies 5. hepatitis 7. HIV and tuberculosis not forgetting emerging non communicable diseases.

This diseases are related to poor hygiene and sanitation.. as a result of squalid poverty and wretchedness.

Kenya needs to fight poverty by all means and applying the curfew rules archieves the opposite.
The truth of the matter is even this curfew is only about 40% effective. People with means to bribe their way across the police barrier post are still migrating with impunity. It only applies to the poor who would even not have traveled with or without the curfew.

Slowing the economy can have far reaching consequences than the fad diseases itself. The massive job losses and abrupt changes in lifestyle can easily trigger chaos.

The numbers displayed on our screens daily, showing rising positives cases then falling after a deluge should not blind us into making misguided choices.

If I may quote the science of chaos theory.
“When systems become dislodged from a stable state, they go through a period of oscillation, swinging back and forth between order and chaos. ” chaos is the final state in a system’s movement away from order.”

Time to stop restrictions is now. Return us to normal life. All we need to do is to observe basic hygiene best practices. My take.