The reasons why some African and Asian countries were largely spared the Covid pandemic’s first devastating wave of deaths last year are still up for debate.
What is clear, however, is that some countries with large informal economies, crowded city living and limited access to medical resources and health services, have been remarkably resilient so far. However, successive second and third waves of increasingly infectious Covid variants, are seeing numbers grow substantially.
Edna Adan Ismail is the founder and director of the Edna Adan University Maternity Hospital in Somaliland.
Now in her eighties, Adan has spent a life at the forefront of healthcare as a women’s health advocate, campaigner against female genital mutilation, World Health Organization representative and hospital director. She was also Somaliland’s first female foreign minister.
