Guard against China virus - Daily Nation

The world is facing a grave health crisis.

From the Chinese Wuhan Province has emerged a deadly epidemic that is spreading like wildfire.

A new strain of coronavirus, responsible for benign common cold and severe respiratory syndrome (Sars) in 2003, has already killed more than 100 people and infected 3,000-plus worldwide since its emergence last December.

Coronavirus infections and deaths have now been reported in the far-flung corners of the world, including Australia, France, Germany, Canada and the mighty United States.

In China and the surrounding Asian countries, the coronavirus death toll is fast rising.

To their credit, most countries are already taking every precaution to contain the epidemic.

A number, and despite the World Health Organisation reassurance, have already made arrangements to safely evacuate their nationals from China.

However, it must be noted that Wuhan Mayor Zhou Xianwang, in a rare case of self-criticism for a Chinese official, told state broadcaster CCTV that the city’s management of the crisis was not good enough.

China is the world’s most populous nation with vast interests globally.

The Chinese propensity to interact with other people within their country and elsewhere in the world is well established, hence the possibility of an infection associated with them spreading pretty fast.

Though no confirmed infection has so far been reported in Africa, the continent remains hopelessly exposed to the coronavirus.

With its porous borders and decrepit medical care infrastructure, Africa is literally a sitting duck in the face of the coronavirus onslaught.

That African states were deficient of the financial clout to evacuate their nationals under a threat at a short notice, can only heighten its vulnerability to the scourge.

Ours, therefore, is a wake-up call to Africa to be on the lookout. The highly infectious but deadly coronavirus is on the rampage.