JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Despite pockets of incidences in different places, from all indications, the world might have experienced the worst phase of the COVID-19 pandemic. We must however admit the obvious – the pandemic caught the world unawares. 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, dwelling on past shortcomings is unproductive. It is imperative that we swiftly learn from this experience 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 discuss the global ageing population and the role such a 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 year 2010 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 a phenomenon may have played a significant role in the varying COVID-19 incidence and case-fatality rates that were recorded in different regions of the world. Due to the fast-changing age demography in Africa, the continent might suffer the most unfavourable outcomes from future disease outbreaks. Stakeholders must need to closely monitor the shifting age demographics in Africa and institute evidence-based health-promotional measures that will adequately prepare the continent to face future disease outbreaks.