Causes of Death among Adults at the Time of the Covid-19 Pandemic in Sub-Saharan Africa

Ashira Menashe-Oren, Universite catholique de Louvain (UCL)
Bruno Masquelier, Louvain University (UCL)
Kassoum Dianou, Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL) - Centre for demographic research
Pierre Akilimali, Université de Kinshasa
Georges Reniers, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)

The extent of the impact of COVID-19 on mortality in sub-Saharan Africa remains unclear. While direct estimates of cause-specific mortality have been scarce, by using excess deaths, demographers have identified excess mortality over the pandemic in several countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Yet, these deaths could be directly related to COVID-19, or more indirectly, through social and behavioural changes experienced at the time of the pandemic. We aim to identify changes in causes of death around the time of the COVID-19 pandemic in three countries: Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo and Malawi, leveraging unique mobile phone surveys with reports on parental and sibling deaths. We isolate three causes of death: maternal, external, and infectious (including COVID-19). Preliminary findings based on parental deaths indicate an increase in the proportion of deaths related to infectious diseases and external deaths, but a reduction in the proportion of maternal deaths during the pandemic.