Fear, isolation and stigma are impacting the mental health of Africans during the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists say.
For a continent with a history of epidemics such as HIV and Ebola, these issues are re-emerging to contribute to COVID-19’s spread and a mental health crisis, they add
“There is a deep-seated misunderstanding of the unknown that we are currently experiencing, and that’s driving a stigma attached to COVID-19,” says Lochandra Naidoo, President of the South African Federation for Mental Health, in an interview with SciDev.Net last week (16 April).
