Data from 19 countries that participated in the World Health Organization (WHO) sponsored African Programme for OnchocerciasisControl(APOC), from 1995 until 2015, were compared with thirty-five (Non-APOC), countries that were not included. Information was obtained from https//www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/ database. Generalized Poisson regression models were used to obtain estimates of the effect of APOC status on cumulative SARS-CoV-2 infection and mortality rates.
Results:
After controlling for different factors, including the Human Development Index (HDI), APOC countries (vs. non-APOC), show 28% lower mortality (0.72; 95% CI 0.67-0.78) and 8% lower rate of infection (0.92; 95% CI 0.91-0.93) due toCOVID-19.
Conclusions:
The incidence in mortality rates and number of cases is significantly lower among the APOC countries compared to non-APOC countries. That a mass public health preventive campaign againstCOVID-19may have taken place, inadvertently, in some African countries with massive community ivermectin use is an attractive hypothesis.