| REVIEW ARTICLE |
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| Year : 2022 | Volume
: 1
| Issue : 2 | Page : 52-58 |
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The changing global ageing demography and africa perspective: Implications for future pandemics
Abiodun Bamidele Adelowo
Department of Medical Services, Office of the Vice President, State House Abuja, Nigeria
Correspondence Address:
Abiodun Bamidele Adelowo
Department of Medical Services, Office of the Vice President, State House Abuja
Nigeria
 Source of Support: None, Conflict of Interest: None
DOI: 10.4103/jnam.jnam_11_22
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Despite pockets of incidences in different places, from all indications, the world might has experienced the worse phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. We must however admit the obvious – the pandemic caught the world poorly prepared. The relatively high case-fatality rates and socioeconomic losses from the pandemic could have been effectively mitigated assuming the global healthcare systems were more proactive in their preparedness. However, there is no time to cry over spilled milk. We must quickly learn our lessons and prepare for future disease outbreaks. Another pandemic in the future without adequate preparedness may be too grievous to the fragile interconnected global healthcare and economic systems. The objectives of the article are to briefly discuss the global ageing population and the role such phenomenon might have played in the recent global COVID-19 outbreak and may play in future disease outbreaks, especially in Africa. Accordingly, a review of related online full articles published from 2000 to 2022 from reliable scientific search engines was done. Results revealed that the world is presently experiencing a change in age demography to older age groups, and such phenomenon might have played a significant role in the different COVID-19 incidence and case-fatality rates that were experienced by different regions of the world. Due to the fast-changing age demography in Africa, the continent might suffer the most unfavourable outcomes from future pandemics. Stakeholders must closely monitor the fast-changing age demography in Africa and institute evidence-based health-promotional measures that will adequately prepare the continent for future disease outbreaks. |
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