Incidence and Predictors of Imported Cases of COVID-19 in Burkina Faso

Abstract

BackgroundTo limit the spread of COVID-19 due to imported cases, Burkina Faso has set up quarantine measures for arriving passengers. We aimed to determine the incidence and predictors of imported cases of COVID-19 in Burkina Faso.MethodsA prospective cohort study was performed using data from passengers arriving at the airport from April 9 to August 31, 2020. The data was extracted from the District Health Information Software 2 (DHIS2) platform. Cox regression was used to identify predictors of imported cases of COVID-19.ResultsAmong 6,332 travelers who arrived in the study period, 173 imported cases (2.7%) were recorded. The incidence rate was 1.9 cases per 1,000 traveler-days (95%CI: 1.6–2.2 per 1,000). Passengers arriving in April (Adjusted hazard ratio [aHR] = 3.56; 95%CI: 1.62–7.81) and May (aHR = 1.92; 95% CI: 1.18–3.12) were more at risk of being tested positive compared to those arriving in August, as well as, passengers presenting with one symptom (aHR = 3.71; 95% CI: 1.63–8.43) and at least two symptoms (aHR = 10.82; 95% CI: 5.24–22,30) compared to asymptomatic travelers.ConclusionsThe incidence of imported cases was relatively low in Burkina Faso between April and August 2020. The period of travel and the presence of symptoms at arrival predicted the risk of being tested positive to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). This is essential in the context of the high circulation of virus variants worldwide and the low local capacity to perform genotyping tests to strengthen the surveillance and screening capacities at the points of entry into the country.

Effectiveness of international border control measures during the COVID-19 pandemic: a narrative synthesis of published systematic reviews

“…For example, several new studies assessed the value of repeated testing of arriving travellers at various intervals during quarantine, providing more support for the view that such strategies can shorten the required quarantine time without leading to a meaningful increase in imported infections. Specifically, four observational studies of real-world national border control measures found that countries which implemented a 14-day quarantine with multiple testing [10,11] and countries that implemented a 7-or 8-day quarantine with multiple testing [11][12][13] were both able to detect around 80-95% of cases. We interpret this to mean that when implemented with multiple testing, an additional week of quarantine did not lead to a much larger proportion of cases detected.…”