Only 4% of Covid research relevant to Africa: study

According to an analysis published Tuesday, only four percent of scientific research published on Covid-19 is relevant to Africa despite the continent containing nearly a fifth of humanity.

With nearly four million confirmed cases across the continent, the study authors said the relative lack of research on Africa or authored by Africans adds to the growing body of “evidence of coloniality in research. and global health decision making ”.

Researchers analyzed more than 2,000 peer-reviewed articles published in the top 10 medical and medical journals between January 1 and September 30, 2020.

The analysis revealed that only 94 articles out of 2,196 studied articles – around 4% – contained content related to Africa or a specific African country.

In articles relating to Africa, only 210 of the 619 authors listed were African – 34%.

This means that two-thirds of the authors of the continent-related Covid-19 research were not African, compared to African authors representing 3% of the authors of non-African research.

Africa is home to 17 percent of the world’s population.

The authors of the analysis, published in the online journal BMJ Global Health, said the results were not surprising given how African authors have historically been under-represented in scientific research.

“Health policy is not only informed by original research; meaningful and context-sensitive guidelines, opinions and comments are also essential for improving the functioning of health systems, ”they wrote.

“This is especially true in times of strong growth, when original research can be difficult to produce in low-resource settings, like those in Africa.

“African voices and research are needed to guide the local response to the pandemic,” they concluded.

The authors called on governments to increase funding for research, especially on infectious diseases, and said scientific journals have a role to play in ensuring their studies are more representative of the world’s population.

“The time has come for authoritative journals to turn to the authors and ask where the local representation is in articles describing health systems in regions that are not theirs,” they wrote.

A separate analysis reinforced the findings, examining research related to African researchers or institutions between November 2019 and August 2020.

It found that African countries produced 3% of the global share of Covid-19 releases during this period.

Almost two-thirds of them came from just three countries: South Africa, Egypt and Nigeria.