France Mutombo Tshimuanga was born in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, but has lived in Hungary for 24 years. Currently he is the country’s honorary consul in the Hungarian capital and president of the Africa Foundation. The organization, which has been slowly working for twenty years, has been building schools and supporting health centers in Congo, Tanzania and Ethiopia, but is also helping volunteers out.
Although the epidemic made their work very difficult, France and some Hungarians who wanted help also visited Africa this past fall and this spring, as there were far fewer cases of coronavirus infection compared to Europe. There are 1.3 billion people in Africa and the number of registered patients is less than 5 million. In contrast, Europe has more than 800 million people, and more than 45 million have fallen sick here.
It is no coincidence that the belief in Africa that the Coronavirus is a disease that affects whites and the rich
France Mutombo Chimwanga told the index, whose country, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, had very few, only 30,000, and 750 died of complications.
Photo: Tamas Rajna
According to the Congolese citizen, this is partly due to the fact that the locals have been living with viruses and diseases much more dangerous than COVID-19 for a long time, such as Ebola or malaria.
“Those who live there have not only encountered the concept of quarantine or seeking contact for the first time, as they are being used regularly in other epidemics as well. In many places, rules of hygiene, hand washing and disinfection are just beginning to be introduced, but this has the advantage that the immune systems of Africans have I am getting more trained and stronger as a result, and the community is very young, with a few older people known. The 45-year-old, whose family still lives in the Congo, said he was infected with the Coronavirus. With 24 siblings in his father, no He can even count the hundreds of his cousins, yet he does not know that any of his relatives have contracted the disease.
In Africa, COVID is seen very differently. They do not think it is a destructive virus
France highlighted it, noting that there are hardly any positive cases in small villages, for example. This may be due to the low mobility of those who live there, they are not actually leaving their homes and the tourists are not looking for these poor areas either. Interestingly, most of the infections were in the most elite and healthier-developed neighborhoods, where residents travel significantly more.
They are the ones who want to get vaccinated. The honorary consul added that, by contrast, residents of less developed regions are almost entirely excluded from vaccination.
Fewer cases have been recorded in poor countries
In Africa a World scales A total of 4,700,000 people have been diagnosed with the disease so far. The number of newly registered cases is increasing very slowly, with about 250-300 cases per day, and the number of deaths per day often does not reach 10 people. The coronavirus has hit South Africa the most, with a population of nearly 60 million, infecting 1,600,000 people and killing 55,000. All this supports what Frans Mutombo said, as it is the most economically developed and industrialized country on the continent, yet it has had the most patients. Morocco ranks second with 514,000 cases, and Tunisia ranks third with 324,000 cases. In contrast, 34,000 were infected in already poorer Malawi, 14,000 in Somalia and only 2,100 in Liberia
(Cover photo: Healthcare workers prepare for vaccination in the Democratic Republic of the Congo on May 5, 2021. Photo: Guerchom Ndebo / Getty Images)
