A strategy for finding people infected with SARS-CoV-2: optimizing pooled testing at low prevalence

Mutesa, Léon; Ndishimye, Pacifique; Butera, Yvan; Souopgui, Jacob; Uwineza, Annette; Rutayisire, Robert; Musoni, Emile; Rujeni, Nadine; Nyatanyi, Thierry; Ntagwabira, Edouard; Semakula, Muhammed; Musanabaganwa, Clarisse; Nyamwasa, Daniel; Ndashimye, Maurice; Ujeneza, Eva; Mwikarago, Ivan Emile; Muvunyi, Claude Mambo; Mazarati, Jean Baptiste; Nsanzimana, Sabin; Turok, Neil; Ndifon, Wilfred

doi:10.1101/2020.05.02.20087924

Cited by 28 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 17 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Medical scientists are currently conducting extensive research to understand how the virus mutates and how it affects persons with different medical conditions. Research is ongoing in testing methodologies 33 and strategies 34 and even vaccine development 35 . Even if there is ongoing research, doubts exist as to whether it is at the same level as in other countries such as India, which is equally a developing nation like the rest of Africa.…”

Section: Africa's Health Systems Capacity To Contain the Pandemicmentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID‐19: A perspective on Africa's capacity and response

Dzinamarira

Dzobo

Chitungo

2020

Journal of Medical Virology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Global powerhouses with tried and tested health systems have struggled to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. One is left to wonder what will be left of Africa, the second most populous continent after Asia, which is torn by civil wars, hunger, and diseases like AIDS and TB and, in recent years, the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD). The majority of countries' health systems, already dependent on donor aid, are ill-equipped and under-resourced to deal with the raging pandemic. There is a lack of isolation and intensive care infrastructure, ventilators, and financial resources to bankroll the fight against COVID-19 pandemic. However, there is some cause for optimism, for example, in West Africa where infrastructure like diagnostic testing facilities, intensive care units, surveillance, and systems for reporting emergencies used during the EVD outbreak of 2013-2016 can be leveraged to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, a number of African countries have responded swiftly by activating the necessary political and financial tools to combat the pandemic. Technical support from continental bodies like the Africa Centers for Disease Control and global development partners has improved the capacity of the continent to handle the pandemic. In this article, the authors unpack, review, and share a perspective on Africa's capacity to contain and control the COVID-19 pandemic and review the current response.

show abstract

Section: Africa's Health Systems Capacity To Contain the Pandemicmentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID‐19: A perspective on Africa's capacity and response

Dzinamarira

Dzobo

Chitungo

2020

Journal of Medical Virology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…A countrywide lockdown was introduced after recording 17 cases only [5]. The country has managed to scale up the laboratory capacity for testing COVID-19, employing the pooling strategy [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice Towards COVID-19 Among People Living with HIV/AIDS in Kigali, Rwanda

et al. 2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

As with other countries globally, Rwanda has faced a recent outbreak of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) against a backdrop of an HIV epidemic. At present, there is no successful cure or vaccine for both COVID-19 and HIV. People with underlying conditions, including HIV, are at increased risk of severe COVID-19 manifestations. This underscores the need to enhance the knowledge, attitudes, and practice of people living with HIV (PLWH) to protect this population against COVID-19. An institution-based cross-sectional study was conducted from August 31 to September 18, 2020 among 376 participants who were selected by a simple random sampling technique. A pretested and structured self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data. Quality scores were calculated as a measure of the participants' knowledge, attitudes, and practice (KAP) levels. The student t-test was used to compare continuous variables between low (<65%) and high (≥65%) KAP scores. The chi-square test was used to determine the association between KAP scores and categorical variables. All decisions on statistical tests were concluded at 5% level of significance. All statistical analysis was performed using STATA statistical package version 11.2 (STATA Corp., Texas, USA). Of the 376 participants, 363 (97%) obtained a high knowledge score, while more than a quarter of the participants (26%) had a poor attitude score, and the majority (90%) having a high practice score. There was no association between gender, age, place of residence, employment, or duration on ART and knowledge score. Employment status and duration on antiretroviral treatment (ART) were significantly associated with attitude scores (p = 0.004 and p = 0.013, respectively). Gender and duration on ART were significantly associated with practice scores (p = 0.02 and p = 0.012, respectively). There was a moderate positive correlation (r = 0.57) between knowledge and attitude scores, and knowledge and practice scores (r = 0.55). There was a strong positive correlation (r = 0.67) between attitude scores and practice scores. Health education programs tailored for PLWH and aimed at mobilizing and improving COVID-19-related knowledge, attitude, and practice should be prioritized in the Rwandan COVID-19 response.

show abstract

“…This strategy allows saving reagents and resources, diminishing the time needed to assay a wider population, thus significantly reducing the global costs 18 . Different pooling strategies have been proposed, based on different pooling schemes and different pool sizes [4][5][6] . Indeed, to be cost-effective and reliable, the pooling strategy must take into consideration both the virus prevalence in the population and the sensitivity of the assay 20 .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Implementation and validation of a pooling strategy for a sustainable screening campaign for the presence of SARS-CoV-2

Cesselli

Bulfoni

Marzinotto³

et al. 2020

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Mass screening aimed at detecting, in asymptomatic subjects, the presence of SARS-CoV-2 is considered a strategic measure for the control of the present pandemic. It allows virus carriers to be identified and quarantined, thus preventing local spread and protecting vulnerable individuals. Although the screening strategy should be determined by the epidemiological situation, the size of the population that can be screened is indeed limited by the availability of resources. Here we present the implementation of an 8-sample pool strategy that relies on protocols, reagents and equipment currently used in clinical diagnostics. The method permitted to identify, with 100% sensitivity, specificity and accuracy, samples with low viral load, being the limit of detection of 11 viral copies extracted from the equivalent of 133ul of nasopharyngeal sample-pool. When the protocol has been applied, as a proof of principle, in a real population of 3592 consecutive nasopharyngeal swabs collected by healthcare providers in asymptomatic subjects, 20 positive pools were detected and in 100% of cases the positive specimens identified. Considering these performances, the 8-sample pool will allow, in populations with an expected positive rate of less than 1%, reducing costs by at least 80%, being a suitable method for a sustainable mass screening strategy in a population of asymptomatic subjects.

show abstract

A strategy for finding people infected with SARS-CoV-2: optimizing pooled testing at low prevalence

Cited by 28 publications

References 17 publications

COVID‐19: A perspective on Africa's capacity and response

COVID‐19: A perspective on Africa's capacity and response

Knowledge, Attitude, and Practice Towards COVID-19 Among People Living with HIV/AIDS in Kigali, Rwanda

Implementation and validation of a pooling strategy for a sustainable screening campaign for the presence of SARS-CoV-2

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About