BackgroundApplying mobile phones in healthcare is increasingly prioritized to strengthen healthcare systems. Antenatal care has the potential to reduce maternal morbidity and improve newborns’ survival but this benefit may not be realized in sub-Saharan Africa where the attendance and quality of care is declining. We evaluated the association between a mobile phone intervention and antenatal care in a resource-limited setting. We aimed to assess antenatal care in a comprehensive way taking into consideration utilisation of antenatal care as well as content and timing of interventions during pregnancy.MethodsThis study was an open label pragmatic cluster-randomised controlled trial with primary healthcare facilities in Zanzibar as the unit of randomisation. 2550 pregnant women (1311 interventions and 1239 controls) who attended antenatal care at selected primary healthcare facilities were included at their first antenatal care visit and followed until 42 days after delivery. 24 primary health care facilities in six districts were randomized to either mobile phone intervention or standard care. The intervention consisted of a mobile phone text-message and voucher component. Primary outcome measure was four or more antenatal care visits during pregnancy. Secondary outcome measures were tetanus vaccination, preventive treatment for malaria, gestational age at last antenatal care visit, and antepartum referral.ResultsThe mobile phone intervention was associated with an increase in antenatal care attendance. In the intervention group 44% of the women received four or more antenatal care visits versus 31% in the control group (OR, 2.39; 95% CI, 1.03-5.55). There was a trend towards improved timing and quality of antenatal care services across all secondary outcome measures although not statistically significant.ConclusionsThe wired mothers’ mobile phone intervention significantly increased the proportion of women receiving the recommended four antenatal care visits during pregnancy and there was a trend towards improved quality of care with more women receiving preventive health services, more women attending antenatal care late in pregnancy and more women with antepartum complications identified and referred. Mobile phone applications may contribute towards improved maternal and newborn health and should be considered by policy makers in resource-limited settings.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01821222.

Objective To examine the association between a mobile phone intervention and skilled delivery attendance in a resource-limited setting.Design Pragmatic cluster-randomised controlled trial with primary healthcare facilities as the unit of randomisation.Setting Primary healthcare facilities in Zanzibar.Population Two thousand, five hundred and fifty pregnant women (1311 interventions and 1239 controls) who attended antenatal care at one of the selected primary healthcare facilities were included at their first antenatal care visit and followed until 42 days after delivery. All pregnant women were eligible for study participation.Methods Twenty-four primary healthcare facilities in six districts in Zanzibar were allocated by simple randomisation to either mobile phone intervention (n = 12) or standard care (n = 12). The intervention consisted of a short messaging service (SMS) and mobile phone voucher component. Main outcome measures Skilled delivery attendance.Results The mobile phone intervention was associated with an increase in skilled delivery attendance: 60% of the women in the intervention group versus 47% in the control group delivered with skilled attendance. The intervention produced a significant increase in skilled delivery attendance amongst urban women (odds ratio, 5.73; 95% confidence interval, 1.51-21.81), but did not reach rural women.Conclusions The mobile phone intervention significantly increased skilled delivery attendance amongst women of urban residence. Mobile phone solutions may contribute to the saving of lives of women and their newborns and the achievement of Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5, and should be considered by maternal and child health policy makers in developing countries.

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BackgroundMobile phones are increasingly used in health systems in developing countries and innovative technical solutions have great potential to overcome barriers of access to reproductive and child health care. However, despite widespread support for the use of mobile health technologies, evidence for its role in health care is sparse.ObjectiveWe aimed to evaluate the association between a mobile phone intervention and perinatal mortality in a resource-limited setting.MethodsThis study was a pragmatic, cluster-randomized, controlled trial with primary health care facilities in Zanzibar as the unit of randomization. At their first antenatal care visit, 2550 pregnant women (1311 interventions and 1239 controls) who attended antenatal care at selected primary health care facilities were included in this study and followed until 42 days after delivery. Twenty-four primary health care facilities in six districts were randomized to either mobile phone intervention or standard care. The intervention consisted of a mobile phone text message and voucher component. Secondary outcome measures included stillbirth, perinatal mortality, and death of a child within 42 days after birth as a proxy of neonatal mortality.ResultsWithin the first 42 days of life, 2482 children were born alive, 54 were stillborn, and 36 died. The overall perinatal mortality rate in the study was 27 per 1000 total births. The rate was lower in the intervention clusters, 19 per 1000 births, than in the control clusters, 36 per 1000 births. The intervention was associated with a significant reduction in perinatal mortality with an odds ratio (OR) of 0.50 (95% CI 0.27-0.93). Other secondary outcomes showed an insignificant reduction in stillbirth (OR 0.65, 95% CI 0.34-1.24) and an insignificant reduction in death within the first 42 days of life (OR 0.79, 95% CI 0.36-1.74).ConclusionsMobile phone applications may contribute to improved health of the newborn and should be considered by policy makers in resource-limited settings.Trial RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov NCT01821222; http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01821222 (Archived by WebCite at http://www.webcitation.org/6NqxnxYn0).

Katie Hampson and colleagues describe their experience of developing and deploying a large-scale rabies surveillance system based on mobile phones in southern Tanzania.

BackgroundHelminth infections can negatively affect the immunologic host control, which may increase the risk of progression from latent Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection to tuberculosis (TB) disease and alter the clinical presentation of TB. We assessed the prevalence and determined the clinical relevance of helminth co-infection among TB patients and household contact controls in urban Tanzania.MethodologyBetween November 2013 and October 2015, we enrolled adult (≥18 years) sputum smear-positive TB patients and household contact controls without TB during an ongoing TB cohort study in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. We used Baermann, FLOTAC, Kato-Katz, point-of-care circulating cathodic antigen, and urine filtration to diagnose helminth infections. Multivariable logistic regression models with and without random effects for households were used to assess for associations between helminth infection and TB.Principal findingsA total of 597 TB patients and 375 household contact controls were included. The median age was 33 years and 60.2% (585/972) were men. The prevalence of any helminth infection among TB patients was 31.8% (190/597) and 25.9% (97/375) among controls. Strongyloides stercoralis was the predominant helminth species (16.6%, 161), followed by hookworm (9.0%, 87) and Schistosoma mansoni (5.7%, 55). An infection with any helminth was not associated with TB (adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 1.26, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.88–1.80, p = 0.22), but S. mansoni infection was (aOR 2.15, 95% CI: 1.03–4.45, p = 0.040). Moreover, S. mansoni infection was associated with lower sputum bacterial load (aOR 2.63, 95% CI: 1.38–5.26, p = 0.004) and tended to have fewer lung cavitations (aOR 0.41, 95% CI: 0.12–1.16, p = 0.088).Conclusions/SignificanceS. mansoni infection was an independent risk factor for active TB and altered the clinical presentation in TB patients. These findings suggest a role for schistosomiasis in modulating the pathogenesis of human TB. Treatment of helminths should be considered in clinical management of TB and TB control programs.

BackgroundTanzania is among the 30 countries with the highest tuberculosis (TB) burdens. Because TB has a long infectious period, early diagnosis is not only important for reducing transmission, but also for improving treatment outcomes. We assessed diagnostic delay and associated factors among infectious TB patients.MethodsWe interviewed new smear-positive adult pulmonary TB patients enrolled in an ongoing TB cohort study in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, between November 2013 and June 2015. TB patients were interviewed to collect information on socio-demographics, socio-economic status, health-seeking behaviour, and residential geocodes. We categorized diagnostic delay into ≤ 3 or > 3 weeks. We used logistic regression models to identify risk factors for diagnostic delay, presented as crude (OR) and adjusted Odds Ratios (aOR). We also assessed association between geographical distance (incremental increase of 500 meters between household and the nearest pharmacy) with binary outcomes.ResultsWe analysed 513 patients with a median age of 34 years (interquartile range 27–41); 353 (69%) were men. Overall, 444 (87%) reported seeking care from health care providers prior to TB diagnosis, of whom 211 (48%) sought care > 2 times. Only six (1%) visited traditional healers before TB diagnosis. Diagnostic delay was positively associated with absence of chest pain (aOR = 7.97, 95% confidence intervals [CI]: 3.15–20.19; P < 0.001), and presence of hemoptysis (aOR = 25.37, 95% CI: 11.15–57.74; P < 0.001) and negatively associated with use of medication prior to TB diagnosis (aOR = 0.31, 95% CI: 0.14–0.71; P = 0.01). Age, sex, HIV status, education level, household income, and visiting health care facilities (HCFs) were not associated with diagnostic delay. Patients living far from pharmacies were less likely to visit a HCF (incremental increase of distance versus visit to any facility: OR = 0.51, 95% CI: 0.28–0.96; P = 0.037).ConclusionsTB diagnostic delay was common in Dar es Salaam, and was more likely among patients without prior use of medication and presenting with hemoptysis. Geographical distance to HCFs may have an impact on health-seeking behaviour. Increasing community awareness of TB signs and symptoms could further reduce diagnostic delays and interrupt TB transmission.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s40249-017-0276-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

BackgroundNovel tuberculosis vaccines should be safe, immunogenic, and effective in various population groups, including HIV-infected individuals. In this phase II multi-centre, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, the safety and immunogenicity of the novel H1/IC31 vaccine, a fusion protein of Ag85B-ESAT-6 (H1) formulated with the adjuvant IC31, was evaluated in HIV-infected adults.MethodsHIV-infected adults with CD4+ T cell counts >350/mm3 and without evidence of active tuberculosis were enrolled and followed until day 182. H1/IC31 vaccine or placebo was randomly allocated in a 5∶1 ratio. The vaccine was administered intramuscularly at day 0 and 56. Safety assessment was based on medical history, clinical examinations, and blood and urine testing. Immunogenicity was determined by a short-term whole blood intracellular cytokine staining assay.Results47 of the 48 randomised participants completed both vaccinations. In total, 459 mild or moderate and 2 severe adverse events were reported. There were three serious adverse events in two vaccinees classified as not related to the investigational product. Local injection site reactions were more common in H1/IC31 versus placebo recipients (65.0% vs. 12.5%, p = 0.015). Solicited systemic and unsolicited adverse events were similar by study arm. The baseline CD4+ T cell count and HIV viral load were similar by study arm and remained constant over time. The H1/IC31 vaccine induced a persistent Th1-immune response with predominately TNF-α and IL-2 co-expressing CD4+ T cells, as well as polyfunctional IFN-γ, TNF-α and IL-2 expressing CD4+ T cells.ConclusionH1/IC31 was well tolerated and safe in HIV-infected adults with a CD4+ Lymphocyte count greater than 350 cells/mm3. The vaccine did not have an effect on CD4+ T cell count or HIV-1 viral load. H1/IC31 induced a specific and durable Th1 immune response.Trial registrationPan African Clinical Trials Registry (PACTR) PACTR201105000289276