Does Long COVID Exist in Sub-Saharan Africa?

Abstract

Billions of people have been impacted by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic with over 600 million infections worldwide. Researchers have turned their attention to describing the post-viral phenomenon known commonly as “Long COVID”. While post-viral syndromes have been documented after other viral pandemics, the scale of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic provides a unique opportunity to study and understand both the epidemiology and pathophysiology of the long COVID syndrome. While the pandemic impacted populations from all continents, there is a significant gap in what is known about long COVID on the sub-Saharan African continent. We review what is known about long COVID and highlight the need for further research within the African population.

Keywords

• long COVID
• pandemic
• post-viral syndrome