COVID-19 pandemic in Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) region: implication for capacity strengthening at Point of Entry

Lokossou, Virgil; Usman, Aishat Bukola; Sombié, Issiaka; Paraïso, Moussiliou Noël; Balogun, Muhammad Shakir; Umeokonkwo, Chukwuma David; Gatua, Josephine; Wagai, John; Ouendo, Edgard-Marius; Nguku, Patrick

doi:10.11604/pamj.2021.39.67.29089

Cited by 5 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…This contrasted with June and July when only a small proportion of those tested were diagnosed. The reasons for these differences are unclear, but the lower proportions of travelers tested in April and May could have been due to shortages of staff at POE, training issues, staff fatigue, poor communication across stakeholders and supply issues with rapid antigen diagnostic kits: all of these have been reported as challenges at POE in other countries [17][18][19].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our study was not set up to explore reasons for these findings. Conventionally, many land border crossings do not have sufficient health care staff as the checks at border crossings are often focused on screening for narcotics and other illegal importations [17]. With the emergence of COVID-19 in January 2020, many of the POEs were strengthened by the repurposing and posting of health care staff from other health facilities as a makeshift arrangement, but whether these postings were retained into the pandemic needs to be clarified.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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COVID-19 Amongst Travelers at Points of Entry in Nepal: Screening, Testing, Diagnosis and Isolation Practices

et al. 2022

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WHO recommends surveillance for COVID-19 among travelers at Points of Entry (POE) to countries. At 13 selected POE at the Nepal-India border, between March 2021 and July 2021, we describe the screening, testing, diagnosis and isolation practices of COVID-19 amongst travelers. Those who stayed in India or elsewhere for > one day and those who did not have a negative RT-PCR result within the last 72 h of travel were tested for COVID-19 with rapid antigen diagnostic tests. Daily surveillance reports maintained at POE were used for analysis. Of 337,338 travelers screened, 69,886 (21%) were tested and 3907 (6%) were diagnosed with COVID-19. The proportions tested averaged 15% during April-May when screened numbers were high and increased to 35% in July when screened numbers had decreased. The proportions diagnosed positive peaked at 10% in April-May, but decreased to below 1% in June and July. Testing coverage varied from 0-99% in the different POE. Most COVID-19 cases were Nepalese, male, <60 years of age, migrant workers and presented with fever. Of COVID-19 cases, 32% had home-based isolation, 64% underwent community-based isolation and the remainder either went to hospital or returned to India. In conclusion, about one fifth of travelers overall were tested, with coverage varying considerably over time and among different POE. Strengthening surveillance processes at POE is needed.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 Amongst Travelers at Points of Entry in Nepal: Screening, Testing, Diagnosis and Isolation Practices

et al. 2022

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“… 3 In the 15-country Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) region, populations are highly connected across borders emphasising the need for a strengthened border health system in the Member States and workforce to contribute to mitigating the international spread of communicable diseases, i.e., Ebola virus disease, Lassa fever, COVID-19. 3 A regional analysis of the POE capacities of the 15 ECOWAS Member States revealed multiple gaps that need to be addressed to improve regional health security, including inadequate training and assignment of qualified personnel for risk assessments of conveyances at official POE. 3 Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the immediate need to address these gaps in a coordinated approach by leveraging the convening power of the West Africa Health Organisation (WAHO), a specialised health institution of ECOWAS.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“… 3 A regional analysis of the POE capacities of the 15 ECOWAS Member States revealed multiple gaps that need to be addressed to improve regional health security, including inadequate training and assignment of qualified personnel for risk assessments of conveyances at official POE. 3 Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the immediate need to address these gaps in a coordinated approach by leveraging the convening power of the West Africa Health Organisation (WAHO), a specialised health institution of ECOWAS. Given the varying levels of border health capacities in the ECOWAS Member States, the number of official languages across the region, and different stakeholders implementing POE curricula to build POE-level International Health Regulations (IHR) capacities, WAHO identified the need for a harmonised training curriculum for POE staff.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Throughout Africa, POE health staff play a crucial role in the provision of emergency response to public health threats and management of ill travelers at the border. Increasing the number of skilled POE health staff workforce and providing specialty POE health training remains a significant need 3. In the 15-country Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) region, populations are highly connected across borders emphasising the need for a strengthened border health system in the Member States and workforce to contribute to mitigating the international spread of communicable diseases, i.e., Ebola virus disease, Lassa fever, COVID-19 3.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Capacity building at points of entry during COVID-19 pandemic: harmonising training curriculum for Economic Community of West African States

et al. 2023

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This paper describes the process for developing, validating and disseminating through a train-the-trainer (TOT) event a standardised curriculum for public health capacity building for points of entry (POE) staff across the 15-member state Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) that reflects both international standards and national guidelines.A five-phase process was used in developing the curriculum: phase (1) assessment of existing materials developed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Africa CDC and the West African Economic and Monetary Union, (2) design of retained and new, harmonised content, (3) validation by the national leadership to produce final content, (4) implementation of the harmonised curriculum during a regional TOT, and (5) evaluation of the curriculum.Of the nine modules assessed in English and French, the technical team agreed to retain six harmonised modules providing materials for 10 days of intensive training. Following the TOT, most participants (n=28/30, 93.3%) indicated that the International Health Regulations and emergency management modules were relevant to their work and 96.7% (n=29/30) reported that the training should be cascaded to POE staff in their countries.The ECOWAS harmonised POE curriculum provides a set of training materials and expectations for national port health and POE staff to use across the region. This initiative contributes to reducing the effort required by countries to identify emergency preparedness and response capacity-building tools for border health systems in the Member States in a highly connected region.

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Short-term health system responses to epidemics across hard-to-reach areas in sub-Saharan Africa: A scoping review protocol

Atieno

Ngoye

Wafula

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Epidemics and disease outbreaks are the occurrence of cases of disease in excess of what would be normally expected. Epidemic-prone diseases, including emerging and re-emerging diseases, constitute the greatest threat to public health security and disruption of social and economic development. When cases of epidemics are diagnosed in specific areas, an outbreak response is triggered to stop the spread swiftly, keeping as few people as possible from being infected. In the past 20 years, the sub-Saharan region has witnessed a marked increase in the number of outbreaks in pandemics, such as cholera, dengue, A/H5N 1 influenza, and rift valley fever, among others. And while many of the efforts toward containment have been individually studied, we have no recent studies that examine them collectively in order to draw appropriate comparisons, no recent studies that have especially focused on hard-to-reach areas, and none that have applied a health systems lens. This study thus details a scoping review of short-term health system responses to epidemics across hard-to-reach areas in sub-Saharan Africa.

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COVID-19 pandemic in Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) region: implication for capacity strengthening at Point of Entry

Cited by 5 publications

References 4 publications

COVID-19 Amongst Travelers at Points of Entry in Nepal: Screening, Testing, Diagnosis and Isolation Practices

COVID-19 Amongst Travelers at Points of Entry in Nepal: Screening, Testing, Diagnosis and Isolation Practices

Capacity building at points of entry during COVID-19 pandemic: harmonising training curriculum for Economic Community of West African States

Short-term health system responses to epidemics across hard-to-reach areas in sub-Saharan Africa: A scoping review protocol

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