Prison health during the COVID-19 era in Africa

Abstract

The world is facing a dreadful outbreak of a novel disease, COVID-19, that has claimed the lives of thousands. African countries have recorded the least number of COVID-19 cases despite their weak healthcare systems. However, African prisons could be an hotspot for the spread of the virus. In this article, we focused on describing certain possibilities of an uncontrollable outbreak of this pandemic in African prisons considering the overcrowding, poor access to healthcare among inmates, and already existing abuse of human rights. We hypothesized that negligence to prison health in Africa during this pandemic could lead to devastating events. It is therefore important that inmates are not forgotten in COVID-19 responses.

Keywords

• Prison health
• COVID-19
• African prisons
• Infectous disease