African elites have been known to travel outside the continent in search of medical treatment. They did all these instead of investing on their health care systems at home.
Former President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, died in Singapore while seeking treatment there. Paul Biya, President of Cameroon often seeks treatment abroad.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari takes frequent trips abroad for medical checks since 2017. Now flights are grounded and countries around the world are under lock down as a result of Covid-19, the leaders have no option but get served by their own ill-prepared healthcare systems.
The number of infections in Africa are lower than other parts of the globe however they are increasing in an exponential way.
WHO recently reported that there are already 600 deaths from Covid-19 and 11,000 confirmed cases. Experts have already warned that the pandemic will overwhelm the weak African healthcare system. There are already a lot of challenges facing the system such as labour disputes and inadequate funding.
Essential machines such as ventilators and ICU beds are still a luxury in many hospitals across Africa. For instance, there are just three ventilators in Central African Republic for every 5 million people.
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