ABSTRACT
While many countries are preparing to face the COVID-19 pandemic, the reported cases in Africa remain low. With a high burden of both communicable and non-communicable disease and a resource-constrained public healthcare system, sub-Saharan Africa is preparing for the coming crisis as best it can. We describe our early response as a designated COVID-19 provincial hospital in Cape Town, South Africa (SA).While the first cases reported were related to international travel, at the time of writing there was evidence of early community spread. The SA government announced a countrywide lockdown from midnight 26 March 2020 to midnight 30 April 2020 to stem the pandemic and save lives. However, many questions remain on how the COVID-19 threat will unfold in SA, given the significant informal sector overcrowding and poverty in our communities. There is no doubt that leadership and teamwork at all levels is critical in influencing outcomes
Subject(s)
COVID-19 , Coronavirus Infections/prevention & control , Delivery of Health Care , Pandemics , Severe acute respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus , South AfricaABSTRACT
A fifty-four year old woman underwent colonoscopy due to symptoms of altered bowel habit and weight loss. There was a malignant looking lesion at her rectosigmoid junction [Fig. 1a] which was confirmed histologically to be a moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma. Although the blood results were normal, her CT scan and MRI [Fig 2a] showed an apple core lesion at rectosigmoid junction which was deemed to be Stage IIIC (T4aN2aM0)