Priorities for COVID-19 research response and preparedness in low-resource settings

Norton, Alice; Wiysonge, Charles Shey; Habarugira, Jean Marie Vianney; White, Nicholas John; Bayona, Marta Tufet; Hagen, Hans Eckhardt; Archer, Julie; Alobo, Moses; Carson, Gail; García, Patricia J.; Maciel, Rui M. B.; Ramakrishnan, Uma; Ryu, Choong Min; Rees, Helen; Ntoumi, Francine; Tshangela, Akhona; Faiz, Mohammad Abul; Snewin, Valerie A.; Mburu, Sheila; Miles, Rachel Elizabeth Esther; Okware, Brenda; Vaux, Richard; Sowinski, Stefanie; Atuire, Caesar; Kaushic, Charu

doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(21)00980-6

Cited by 22 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 11 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Indeed, Libster et al ( 35 ) showed a 48% reduction in hospital admission when CCP was used as treatment within 3 days of becoming ill at home. With bedside production of CCP in primary health care facilities in local communities, not limited by the upfront costs and technological barriers of conventional plasmapheresis, CCP produced by the HemoClear method could be a first line of defense against new virus mutants that are not responsive to existing vaccines, not only in HICs but also in LMICs ( 36 – 38 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reduced Mortality among COVID-19 ICU Patients after Treatment with HemoClear Convalescent Plasma in Suriname

Bihariesingh

Bansie

Ramdhani

et al. 2023

mBio

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study compares mortality and other endpoints between intensive care unit COVID-19 patients treated with convalescent plasma plus standard of care (CCP), and a control group of patients hospitalized in the same medical ICU facility treated with standard of care alone (SOC) in a low- and middle-income country (LMIC) setting using bedside donor whole blood separation by gravity (HemoClear) to produce the CCP. It demonstrates a significant 65% survival improvement in HemoClear-produced CCP recipients (HR, 0.35; 95% CI, 0.19 to 0.66; P = 0.001).

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reduced Mortality among COVID-19 ICU Patients after Treatment with HemoClear Convalescent Plasma in Suriname

Bihariesingh

Bansie

Ramdhani

et al. 2023

mBio

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Our assay is affordable: the cost for mutations screening, including viral RNA extraction and all reagents, is below $12. Therefore, it has the potential to be implemented in laboratories in low-resource settings, to provide access to a simple and affordable SARS-CoV-2 mutation screening assay ( Norton et al., 2021 ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Novel Lateral Flow-Based Assay for Simple and Visual Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Mutations

Gomez-Martinez

Henry

Tuaillon

et al. 2022

Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Identification of the main SARS-CoV-2 variants in real time is of interest to control the virus and to rapidly devise appropriate public health responses. The RT-qPCR is currently considered to be the reference method to screen SARS-CoV-2 mutations, but it has some limitations. The multiplexing capability is limited when the number of markers to detect increases. Moreover, the performance of this allele-specific method may be impacted in the presence of new mutations. Herein, we present a proof-of-concept study of a simple molecular assay to detect key SARS-CoV-2 mutations. The innovative features of the assay are the multiplex asymmetric one-step RT-PCR amplification covering different regions of SARS-CoV-2 S gene and the visual detection of mutations on a lateral flow DNA microarray. Three kits (Kit 1: N501Y, E484K; Kit 2: L452R, E484K/Q; Kit 3: K417N, L452R, E484K/Q/A) were developed to match recommendations for surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 variants between January and December 2021. The clinical performance was assessed using RNA extracts from 113 SARS-CoV-2-positive samples with cycle thresholds <30, and results demonstrated that our assay allows specific and sensitive detection of mutations, with a performance comparable to that of RT-qPCR. The VAR-CoV assay detected four SARS-CoV-2 targets and achieved specific and sensitive screening of spike mutations associated with the main variants of concern, with a performance comparable to that of RT-qPCR. With well-defined virus sequences, this assay can be rapidly adapted to other emerging mutations; it is a promising tool for variant surveillance.

show abstract

“…Indeed, Libster and colleagues (40) showed a 48% reduction of hospital admission when CCP was used as treatment within the time span of 3 days after becoming ill at home. With bedside production of CCP in primary health care facilities in local communities, not limited by the upfront costs and technological barriers of conventional plasmapheresis, CCP produced by the HemoClear method could be a first line of defense against new virus mutants that are not responsive to existing vaccines, not only in the HICs but also in LMICs (41)(42)(43).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reduced mortality among COVID-19 ICU patients after treatment with HemoClear convalescent plasma in Suriname

Bihariesingh-Sanchit

Bansie

Ramdhani³

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Convalescent plasma is a promising therapy for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), but its efficacy in intensive care unit (ICU) patients in a low and middle income country setting such as Suriname is unknown. Bedside plasma separation using the HemoClear device made convalescent plasma therapy accessible as treatment option in Suriname. Two hundred patients with severe SARS-CoV-2 infection requiring intensive care were recruited. Fifty eight patients (29%) received COVID-19 convalescent plasma (CCP) treatment in addition to standard of care (SOC). The CCP treatment and SOC groups were matched by age, sex, and disease severity scores. Mortality in the CCP treatment group was significantly lower than in the SOC group (21% versus 39%; Fisher's exact P = 0.0133). Multivariate analysis using ICU days showed that CCP treatment reduced mortality (hazard ratio [HR], 0.35; 95% CI, 0.18-0.66; P = 0.001), while complication of acute renal failure (creatinine levels >110 mol/L; HR, 4.45; 95%CI, 2.54-7.80; P < 0.0001) was independently associated with death. Decrease in chest X-ray score in the CCP treatment group (median -3 points, IQR -4 to -1) was significantly greater than in the SOC group (median -1 point, IQR -3 to 1, Mann Whitney P = 0.0004). Improvement in PaO2/FiOs ratio was also significantly greater in the CCP treatment group (median 83, IQR 8 to 140) than in the SOC group (median 35, IQR -3 to 92, Mann Whitney P = 0.0234). Further research is needed for HemoClear-produced CCP as therapy in SARS-CoV-2 infections together with adequately powered, randomized controlled trials.

show abstract

Priorities for COVID-19 research response and preparedness in low-resource settings

Cited by 22 publications

References 11 publications

Reduced Mortality among COVID-19 ICU Patients after Treatment with HemoClear Convalescent Plasma in Suriname

Reduced Mortality among COVID-19 ICU Patients after Treatment with HemoClear Convalescent Plasma in Suriname

Novel Lateral Flow-Based Assay for Simple and Visual Detection of SARS-CoV-2 Mutations

Reduced mortality among COVID-19 ICU patients after treatment with HemoClear convalescent plasma in Suriname

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About