Ahinkorah Bright Opoku, Hagan John Elvis, Ameyaw Edward Kwabena, Seidu Abdul-Aziz, Schack Thomas
Faculty of Health, School of Public Health, University of Technology Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
Department of Health, Physical Education, and Recreation, University of Cape Coast, Cape Coast, Ghana.
Front Glob Womens Health. 2021 Jul 29;2:686984. doi: 10.3389/fgwh.2021.686984. eCollection 2021.
Pandemics such as COVID-19 have often resulted in international, national and sub-regional crises, with considerable inequities across many societies. With the already existing structural and socio-economic inequalities in sub-Saharan Africa, the stay-at-home orders, lockdowns, and shutdowns across the sub-regional states could worsen and have a tremendous impact on vulnerable groups. Numerous studies across a variety of contexts have well-documented gender, and cultures on varied health outcomes. However, these have not been contextualized in sub-Saharan Africa in the light of the COVID-19 pandemic. This mini review discusses the ways by which COVID-19 has impacted the lives of girls and women across sub-Saharan Africa and the strategies that can help mitigate these challenges. The mini review specifically shares light on a wide array of dimensions where the inequities exist. These include the disproportionate areas affected by COVID-19; household inequities; educational inequalities; work/employment inequalities; disparities related to healthcare, sexual and reproductive health as well as housing inequities. Conclusively, the review accentuates the need for sub-Saharan African countries to adopt low-cost preventive measures such as discouraging mass gatherings (e.g., local community gatherings), and face masking with non-medical cloth like masks for the local populace as these are crucial in managing the spread of the virus among disproportionate women population. For localities with limited access to handwashing facilities, alternative strategies like alcohol-based hand rub solutions could be deployed. The complex interrelated disparities require a broad set of policy actions to lessen the current burden faced by many women in sub-Saharan Africa.
诸如新冠疫情这样的大流行病常常引发国际、国家和次区域危机，许多社会存在严重的不平等现象。鉴于撒哈拉以南非洲地区已有的结构和社会经济不平等状况，该次区域各国实施的居家令、封锁和停工可能会加剧不平等，并对弱势群体产生巨大影响。在各种背景下进行的大量研究都充分记录了性别和文化对各种健康结果的影响。然而，鉴于新冠疫情，这些研究尚未在撒哈拉以南非洲地区进行背景化分析。本小型综述讨论了新冠疫情对撒哈拉以南非洲地区女孩和妇女生活的影响方式，以及有助于缓解这些挑战的策略。该小型综述特别揭示了存在不平等现象的广泛层面。这些层面包括受新冠疫情影响不成比例的地区；家庭不平等；教育不平等；工作/就业不平等；与医疗保健、性健康和生殖健康相关的差异以及住房不平等。总之，该综述强调撒哈拉以南非洲国家需要采取低成本预防措施，如劝阻大规模聚集（如当地社区聚会），并为当地民众提供用非医用布制作的口罩，因为这些措施对于控制病毒在女性人口比例过高群体中的传播至关重要。对于洗手设施有限的地区，可以采用基于酒精的洗手液等替代策略。这些复杂的相互关联的差异需要一系列广泛的政策行动来减轻撒哈拉以南非洲地区许多妇女目前面临的负担。
