A study from mortuaries in Lusaka has suggested that Zambia could be under counting Covid-19 deaths.
Research by Boston University School of Public Health, which has not yet been peer reviewed points that many Covid deaths have simply not been registered.
Researchers, who took nose and throat swabs from the bodies of recently deceased people at the University Teaching Hospital mortuary in Lusaka, found a far higher incidence of Covid-19 than expected.
Of 364 bodies tested, Covid-19 was detected in 70.
Lawrence Mwananyanda, who led the research, said it cast doubt on the view that Covid-19 had “somehow skipped” Africa.
“If our data are generalisable, the impact of Covid-19 in Africa has been vastly underestimated,” the authors of the paper wrote.
The study conducted between June and September last year, the median age of death of those testing positive for Covid-19 was 48, much younger than in developed countries.
Seven were children, including a baby only a few months old.
“Oral autopsies”, conducted by talking to relatives, found that many of the 70 deceased had exhibited Covid-like symptoms, including coughing and shortness of breath, in addition to testing positive on their postmortem swab tests.
However, Dr Mwananyanda conceded it was impossible to be certain that Covid-19 was the cause of death.
Of the 70 patients, only 19 had been admitted to hospital while the remaining 51 had died in the community where Covid-19 testing was almost non-existent, he said.
“In Lusaka now, everybody knows someone who has died of Covid or who is in the hospital with Covid,” he said.
Dr Mwananyanda estimated that Zambia’s official Covid-19 death toll of 723 might underestimate the true level by as much as tenfold, a pattern that he said could be replicated in many African countries where Covid-19 testing is limited and the cause — or even the fact — of death goes routinely unrecorded.
It shouldn’t come as a surprise
That cant suprise me… the only thing the over report is precident development…the rest under reported.
Denda Mudenda Chisala
Lunda Chisha welcome to Zambia the real Africa bwafya….
Even New Yok under reported
AT LAST UNDER REPORTING !!!!!!!!! FROM DAY ONE I MIGHT ADD
LETS WAIT FOR THE CHAP KZ TO COME UP WITH SOME EXCUSE CAUSE HE WONT ADMIT THEY HAVE FAILED
NO DOUBT UPND WILL BE THE REASON AND GET THE BLAME
QUITE FRANKLY MORE THAN HALF THE POPULATION DONT REALLY GIVE A DAMN ABOUT WHO WINS THE ELECTION
BUT IT MUST NOT BE PF PF THEY BROUGHT THE COUNTRY TO ITS KNEES JUST LIKE UNIP AND KAUNDA
GOD HELP US
Currently everything in this country is shrouded in secrecy…it’s sad that we can’t trust what we are told by the authorities….if they can allow sub standard drugs to be distributed at the expense of human life …what else are they doing behind closed doors..
We listen to our own media here not abroad.give us yours
The testing levels have been far below the WHO standards.
Chitalu Chilufya and the PF have mismanaged the covid-19 situation in Zambia.
Now many Zambians will contract the virus and even lose their lives.
So you mean every death is caused by covid 19
Mwaka Adam Sichone please read the story again
Midia Syamusesya remember the number 17 everyday? Read this
Michael Sulamoyo Sakala you know I having wondering what is the high death rate in the country if it not covid-19? Most cases s go notice
Kasikwa Chizi Gondwe remember our conversation?
Yes I do
As though it is not enough already!
Zambia my beloved country not too long ago people were busy saying they are inflating numbers so they can get more donations lelo ya chinja story
I am also wondering. This is Zambia zoona. Public opinion is yoyo
It’s very possible
Bafume ku Boston to come swab our Zambian dead bodies. Meanwhile you have left millions of dead bodies in your country which for sure died of covid. Sit down and shut up ?
Anthonia Mulenga Muselela ninkondo
Why so bitter? Just routine pathology..there are limited facilities, the main point here is we’ve many underreported cases and there’s need to be aware,the reason for underreporting could be many…
This should be true. This is my view too
Nothing surprises us in Zambia anymore. And with fake health products supplied by Honeybee pharmacy, fake testing kits could have been used. Shame Shame Shame!
Boston is here to monitor covid ?.
Elo lwanya
the question is do we have capacity to pick every case?
The westerners and their foolish upnd diasporans cannot stand to see that they did worse than Africans in dealing with a virus. oh how their skin crawls knowing a black man did better.
Very bad situation.
The westerners and their f00lish upnd diasporans cannot stand to see that they did worse than Africans in dealing with a virus. oh how their skin crawls knowing a black man did better.
You cant do 100%,there is also death from home.
I already stated this 6 months ago
Fuseke it’s not our fault your white masters have failed to handle this virus and led do death of 100 thousands of people. By the way shouldn’t you be more concerned about why the virus affected minorities like you more than average whlte Joe?
Fuseke it’s not our fault your whlte masters have failed to handle this virus and led do death of 100 thousands of people. By the way shouldn’t you be more concerned about why the virus affected minorities like you more than average whlte Joe?
I think we have all known all along that countries run by dictators (most of Africa, China, Russia etc. etc.) have been under reporting covid deaths.
The second wave has not spared anyone.
In Zambia, pretty much everyone is burying someone they know that has died of covid.
By the way, Iris Kaingu video on having covid was funny. She needs acting lessons.
You are jealous of our iris who is campaigning strongly for pf. She knows the winning team. Does upnd have a girl or woman as beautiful as iris?
You can have Iris. Everyone else has had her.
And no, we do not have a village wh0re in our organisation.
We prefer our women a lot tighter where it matters.
And you can keep nalumango kikiki. Alot of chauvinism in upnd. That is why you cannt win an election. The iris that you insult will become president even before your f00lish leader ever holds any public office.
Yes I agree with you that she will be the next president…of the organisation of Zed wh0res. She has been acting president for too long.
Indigo you are very hurt hahaha. Even tasila will become president before that loser hh. Let me put you out of your misery by informing you that hh will never be president. Never and I put that on my life
So what if the numbers are understated? As if that is when you will send us millions. Do you think you have capacity to do a 100% yourselves? This is not news at all. Western countries always have something to say on us Africans. If we are not careful, we will end up being worse in handling the Covid 19. Why do we want to implement European measures of fighting Covid 19 when we know we are from a different side of the World. Learn to tailor your own solutions suited to your environment.
Not sure why we needed medical evidence of this fact. A country of 18 milliion conducting 3000 tests a day and finding over 300 positive cases ought to have been enough evidence of the lack of enough evidence for us to conclude we were safe.
Our friends can afford to work from home, Zambians cannot, and covid will continue to spread, close bars, markets and our very crowded buses ares till on the road.
Unfortunately, untill the vaccine is innoculated on the majority of the population (which will take years) we are in a herd innunity situation.
When you have a doctor who is a PF minister, involved in corruption, distributing defective and substandard medicines and is minister of the Zambian health system – deaths of Zambians will definitely be under-reportage. This is just one ministry and yet the entire nation is governed by a pandemic corrupt system that has grounded the economic life of the nation to a dire need of gigantic proportions. Examples include default in payments to lenders, failure to pay salaries to junior Doctors who work under difficulties during this Covid-19 pandemic time, Council workers have gone without salaries for months and their cry is unheard to date. Yes, massive issues in the nation are under-reported – Nobody cares if any body dies.
How is that possible…does it mean the every other death is also caused by Covid19??
Boston University is spending money in testing corpses for COVID 19, paying perdiems. Okay let us assume that they discover thousands of people have died from COVID 19 – what next? How will the research results help us. Is the interest in the number of people dying? We need research that contribute to the well being of society. What are the ethical issues in this research?
Every country is doing it. All depends on were the countries intrests lie, either under report or over report.
South African variant of Covid-19 strain is lethal and Zambia is on the door steps, not surprised with counting of deaths in Zambia, sorry to say that we are a little bit behind with scientific calculations and managing data, some months ago many people used to say that they have never attended a covid-19 funeral in Zambia, now there are witnessing some real suffering, please wear the masks and stay safe.
They’re still trying to find an explanation why so much less deaths in Africa than in their western region. Even if we had tenfold of what is being reported, we would still have less mortalities in a year than they have in a day. They just can’t stand to see prosperity and good will endowing in our motherland while their expensive health systems collapse and not even a vaccine can save them. Baza muziba Elohim.
FUSEKE kikiki from a born again …….
THE REST^OF THE WORLD HIT REALLY HARD WITH THIS VIRUS
THEY DONT MANIPULATE THE FIGURES EITHER ,
WE WILL NEVER KNOW THE TRUTH HERE TILL WE START AN INVESTIGATION INTO HOW MANY FUNERALS TAKE PLACE AROUND THE COUNTRY
Kaizar Zulu and his incompetent PF company always fudging data and facts .Karma is coming for you losers.
Sad over the weekend, we lost father Paul Saunders, our dear priest we have known for over 20yrs and Bill, all died of Covid-19
Sorry . Mhsrip
It is simple to know the truth – what is the current mortality rate compared with pre-Covid mortality rate? In other words, how many people are reported dead at UTH now compared with the numbers before Covid? If the numbers suddenly shot very high, then we will know that there is another force responsible and as of now, it would be Covid-19. Just to shout 10-fold numbers may be alarmist and dangerous.
Thanks mate
in my view we actually over reported. because last year almost every BID was classified as a covid death and thats what actually drove up the numbers. i think the west is only saying this because they projected millions of people would die from June to september which did not happen and now they are trying to justify why their models failed. remove the BIDs from the total covid death toll and the number will be very low.