Understanding social pathology of disease causation and socio-cultural factors of corona virus (COVID-19) in South-West, Nigeria

Abstract

The new SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) started in Wuhan City of China on December 31st 2019As at August 3,2020 a total of 18,056,310 million cases had been diagnosed globally with over 689,219 deaths with cases in Nigeria snowballing gradually becoming lethal. Given Nigeria’s socio-economic and demographic significance to African continent, it is imperative to understand the cultural norms that may aid or obstructs prevention and treatment of the disease in order to halt its transmission. Data for study came from the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control and other publicly available data sources supported with PEN-3 cultural model developed in 1989 by Airhihenbuwa. The model places culture at the core of the development, implementation and evaluation of successful public health interventions. COVID-19 transmission increases with large population concentration in urban areas and proximity to major entry points to other adjacent states and countries. The paper suggested that dominant cultures, civilization and religious practices should be adhered to, adopted as the case may be for restrictions such physical distancing, hand hygiene, use of face masks and another prophylactic regimen to flatten the curve of the pandemic in Nigeria and likely occurrence of similar disease in future.