Data collection in Sub-Saharan Africa has traditionally been paper-based. However, the popularization of Android mobile devices and data capture software has brought paperless data management within ...reach. We used Open Data Kit (ODK) technology on Android mobile devices during a household survey in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.
The aim of this study was to describe the pros and cons of deploying ODK for data management.
A descriptive cross-sectional household survey was carried out by 6 data collectors between April and May 2016. Data were obtained from 1706 persons in 601 households across 6 communities in 3 states in the Niger Delta. The use of Android mobile devices and ODK technology involved form building, testing, collection, aggregation, and download for data analysis. The median duration for data collection per household and per individual was 25.7 and 9.3 min, respectively.
Data entries per device ranged from 33 (33/1706, 1.93%) to 482 (482/1706, 28.25%) individuals between 9 (9/601, 1.5%) and 122 (122/601, 20.3%) households. The most entries (470) were made by data collector 5. Only 2 respondents had data entry errors (2/1706, 0.12%). However, 73 (73/601, 12.1%) households had inaccurate date and time entries for when data collection started and ended. The cost of deploying ODK was estimated at US $206.7 in comparison with the estimated cost of US $466.7 for paper-based data management.
We found the use of mobile data capture technology to be efficient and cost-effective. As Internet services improve in Africa, we advocate their use as effective tools for health information management.
Relatively few coronavirus disease cases and deaths have been reported from sub-Saharan Africa, although the extent of its spread remains unclear. During August 10–September 11, 2020, we recruited ...2,214 participants for a representative household-based cross-sectional serosurvey in Juba, South Sudan. We found 22.3% of participants had severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) receptor binding domain IgG titers above prepandemic levels. After accounting for waning antibody levels, age, and sex, we estimated that 38.3% (95% credible interval 31.8%–46.5%) of the population had been infected with SARS-CoV-2. At this rate, for each PCR–confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection reported by the Ministry of Health, 103 (95% credible interval 86–126) infections would have been unreported, meaning SARS-CoV-2 has likely spread extensively within Juba. We also found differences in background reactivity in Juba compared with Boston, Massachusetts, USA, where the immunoassay was validated. Our findings underscore the need to validate serologic tests in sub-Saharan Africa populations.
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Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
In this study, we describe the epidemiological profile of an outbreak of the circulating Vaccine Derived Polio Virus type 2 in South Sudan from 2020 to 2021.
We conducted a retrospective descriptive ...epidemiological study using data from the national polio/AFP surveillance database, the outbreak investigation reports, and the vaccination coverage survey databases stored at the national level.
Between September 2020 and April 2021, 59 cases of the circulating virus were confirmed in the country, with 50 cases in 2020 and 9 cases in 2021. More cases were males (56%) under five (93%). The median age of the cases was 23.4 ± 11.9 months, ranging from 1 to 84 months. All states, with 28 out of the 80 counties, reported at least one case. Most of the cases (44, 75%) were reported from five states, namely Warrap (31%), Western Bahr el Ghazal (12%), Unity (12%), Central Equatoria (10%), and Jonglei (10%). Four counties accounted for 45.8% of the cases; these are Gogrial West with 12 (20%), Jur River with 5 (8.5%), Tonj North with 5 (8.5%), and Juba with 5 (8.5%) cases. The immunization history of the confirmed cases indicated that 14 (24%) of the affected children had never received any doses of oral polio or injectable vaccines either from routine or during supplemental immunization before the onset of paralysis, 17 (28.8%) had received 1 to 2 doses, while 28 (47.5%) had received 3 or more doses (Fig. 4). Two immunization campaigns and a mop-up were conducted with monovalent Oral Polio Vaccine type 2 in response to the outbreak, with administrative coverage of 91.1%, 99.1%, and 97% for the first, second, and mop-up rounds, respectively.
The emergence of the circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus outbreak in South Sudan was due to low population immunity, highlighting the need to improve the country's routine and polio immunization campaign coverage.
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Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The rising demand for medicinal oxygen due to the COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated an underlying chronic shortage of the commodity in Africa. This situation is particularly dire in protracted crises ...where insecurity, dysfunctional health facilities, poor infrastructure and prohibitive costs hinder equitable access to the commodity. Against this backdrop, the Ministry of Health of South Sudan, with the guidance of its partners, procured and installed a pressure swing adsorption central oxygen supply plant to address the shortfall. The plant aimed to ensure a more sustainable and technologically appropriate medicinal oxygen supply system for the country and to bridge the humanitarian and development divide, which had always been challenging. This article discusses the key issues, challenges and lessons associated with the procurement and installation of this plant. The major challenges encountered during the procurement and installation of the plant were the time it took to procure and install in the face of urgent needs for medicinal oxygen and its short and long-term sustainability. Lessons learnt include the need for exhaustive and evidence-based considerations in deciding on which source of medicinal oxygen to deploy in protracted crisis settings. The successful installation and operationalization of the plant demonstrated that it is possible to bridge the humanitarian-development divide amidst the complexities of a protracted crisis and an ongoing pandemic. The Ministries of Health, with the support of its partners, should assess and document the impact of this and other similar central oxygen production plants in protracted crisis settings regarding their sustainability, cost, and effectiveness on medicinal oxygen supply. The Ministry of Health of South Sudan should expedite the finalization and operationalization of the longer-term public-private partnership and continue to monitor the quality of oxygen produced by this plant.
The ongoing pandemic of the coronavirus disease 2019 has spread rapidly to all countries of the world. Africa is particularly predisposed to an escalation of the pandemic and its negative impact ...given its weak economy and health systems. In addition, inadequate access to the social determinants of health such as water and sanitation and socio-cultural attributes may constrain the implementation of critical preventive measures such as hand washing and social distancing on the continent.Given these facts, the continent needs to focus on targeted and high impact prevention and control strategies and interventions which could break the chain of transmission quickly. We conclude that the available body of scientific evidence on the coronavirus disease 2019 holds the key to the development of such strategies and interventions.Going forward, we recommend that the African research community should scale up research to provide scientific evidence for a better characterization of the epidemiology, transmission dynamics, prevention and control of the virus on the continent.
The mobile phone global positioning system (GPS) is used to reconnaissance a mobile phone user's location, e.g., at work, home, shops, etc. Such information can be used to feed data gathering ...expeditions, the actual position of the interviewer/surveyor using the mobile phone inert settings of location mode
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GPS, WIFI, and Mobile networks. Mobile devices are becoming progressively erudite and now integrate diverse and robust sensors. The new generation of smartphones is multi-laden with sensors, including GPS sensors. The study describes and evaluates a data-gathering process used by the World Health Organization (WHO–Nigeria, EPI Program) that uses phone-based in-built GPS sensors to identify the position of users while they undergo supportive supervision. This form of spatial data is collected intrinsically using the Open Data Kit (ODK) GPS interface, which interlaces with the mobile phone GPS sensor to fetch the geo-coordinates during the process. It represents a step in building a methodology of matching places on the map with the geo-coordinates received from the mobile phones to investigate deviation patterns by devices and location mode. The empirical results can help us to understand the variation in geospatial data collation across devices and highlight critical criteria for choosing mobile phones for mobile surveys and data campaigns. This study reviewed the existing data gathered inadvertently from 10 brands of smartphones over 1 year of using the mobile data collection with over 80,000 field visits to predict the deviation pattern for spatial data acquisition
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mobile phones by different brands.
the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020. South Sudan, a low-income and humanitarian response setting, reported its first case of COVID-19 on April 5, 2020. ...We describe the socio-demographic and epidemiologic characteristics of COVID-19 cases in this setting.
we conducted a cross-sectional descriptive analysis of data for 1,330 confirmed COVID-19 cases from the first 60 days of the outbreak.
among the 1,330 confirmed cases, the mean age was 37.1 years, 77% were male, 17% were symptomatic with 95% categorized as mild, and the case fatality rate was 1.1%. Only 24.7% of cases were detected through alerts and sentinel site surveillance, with 95% of the cases reported from the capital, Juba. Epidemic doubling time averaged 9.8 days (95% confidence interval CI 7.7 - 13.4), with an attack rate of 11.5 per 100,000 population. Test positivity rate was 18.2%, with test rate per 100,000 population of 53 and mean test turn-around time of 9 days. The case to contact ratio was 1: 2.2.
this 2-month initial period of COVID-19 in South Sudan demonstrated mostly young adults and men affected, with most cases reported as asymptomatic. Systems´ limitations highlighted included a small proportion of cases detected through surveillance, low testing rates, low contact elicitation, and long collection to test turn-around times limiting the country´s ability to effectively respond to the outbreak. A multi-pronged response including greater access to testing, scale-up of surveillance, contact tracing and community engagement, among other interventions are needed to improve the COVID-19 response in this setting.
INTRODUCTION: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020. South Sudan, a low-income and humanitarian response setting, reported its first case of COVID-19 on ...April 5, 2020. We describe the socio-demographic and epidemiologic characteristics of COVID-19 cases in this setting. METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional descriptive analysis of data for 1,330 confirmed COVID-19 cases from the first 60 days of the outbreak. RESULTS: Among the 1,330 confirmed cases, the mean age was 37.1 years, 77% were male, 17% were symptomatic with 95% categorized as mild, and the case fatality rate was 1.1%. Only 24.7% of cases were detected through alerts and sentinel site surveillance, with 95% of the cases reported from the capital, Juba. Epidemic doubling time averaged 9.8 days (95% confidence interval 7.7 – 13.4), with an attack rate of 11.5 per 100,000 population. Test positivity rate was 18.2%, with test rate per 100,000 population of 53 and mean test turn-around time of 9 days. The case to contact ratio was 1:2.2. CONCLUSION: This 2-month initial period of COVID-19 in South Sudan demonstrated mostly young adults and men affected, with most cases reported as asymptomatic. Systems’ limitations highlighted included a small proportion of cases detected through surveillance, low testing rates, low contact elicitation, and long collection to test turn-around times limiting the country’s ability to effectively respond to the outbreak. A multi-pronged response including greater access to testing, scale-up of surveillance, contact tracing and community engagement, among other interventions are needed to improve the COVID-19 response in this setting.
Highlights • Kastina (11153, 20.4%), Jigawa (8643, 15.8%), Bauchi (8463, 15.5%), Kano (6811, 12.4%), and Gombe (6110, 11.2%) were the states with the highest prevalence of meningitis. • Higher ...proportions of death among cases of cerebrospinal meningitis were found in the states of Nasarawa (11.0%), Adamawa (8.0%), and Borno (7.6%). • The local government areas (LGAs) with the highest proportions of deaths among cases seen were Shongom LGA of Gombe State (12.5%), Illela LGA of Sokoto State (9.8%), and Ikara LGA of Kaduna State (9.1%).
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in Africa is an urgent public health crisis. Estimated models projected over 150,000 deaths and 4,600,000 hospitalizations in the first year of the disease in the ...absence of adequate interventions. Therefore, electronic contact tracing and surveillance have critical roles in decreasing COVID-19 transmission; yet, if not conducted properly, these methods can rapidly become a bottleneck for synchronized data collection, case detection, and case management. While the continent is currently reporting relatively low COVID-19 cases, digitized contact tracing mechanisms and surveillance reporting are necessary for standardizing real-time reporting of new chains of infection in order to quickly reverse growing trends and halt the pandemic.
This paper aims to describe a COVID-19 contact tracing smartphone app that includes health facility surveillance with a real-time visualization platform. The app was developed by the AFRO (African Regional Office) GIS (geographic information system) Center, in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) emergency preparedness and response team. The app was developed through the expertise and experience gained from numerous digital apps that had been developed for polio surveillance and immunization via the WHO's polio program in the African region.
We repurposed the GIS infrastructures of the polio program and the database structure that relies on mobile data collection that is built on the Open Data Kit. We harnessed the technology for visualization of real-time COVID-19 data using dynamic dashboards built on Power BI, ArcGIS Online, and Tableau. The contact tracing app was developed with the pragmatic considerations of COVID-19 peculiarities. The app underwent testing by field surveillance colleagues to meet the requirements of linking contacts to cases and monitoring chains of transmission. The health facility surveillance app was developed from the knowledge and assessment of models of surveillance at the health facility level for other diseases of public health importance. The Integrated Supportive Supervision app was added as an appendage to the pre-existing paper-based surveillance form. These two mobile apps collected information on cases and contact tracing, alongside alert information on COVID-19 reports at the health facility level; the information was linked to visualization platforms in order to enable actionable insights.
The contact tracing app and platform were piloted between April and June 2020; they were then put to use in Zimbabwe, Benin, Cameroon, Uganda, Nigeria, and South Sudan, and their use has generated some palpable successes with respect to COVID-19 surveillance. However, the COVID-19 health facility-based surveillance app has been used more extensively, as it has been used in 27 countries in the region.
In light of the above information, this paper was written to give an overview of the app and visualization platform development, app and platform deployment, ease of replicability, and preliminary outcome evaluation of their use in the field. From a regional perspective, integration of contact tracing and surveillance data into one platform provides the AFRO with a more accurate method of monitoring countries' efforts in their response to COVID-19, while guiding public health decisions and the assessment of risk of COVID-19.
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