Scaling up testing for COVID-19 in Africa: Responding to the pandemic in ways that strengthen health systems

Umaru, Farouk

doi:10.4102/ajlm.v9i1.1244

Cited by 9 publications

(10 citation statements)

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“…North America ranked third in regulatory approvals granted for diagnostic technologies (19.5%), followed by South America (10.2%) and Oceania (5.8%). Regulatory approval in Africa accounted for 1.5% of testing solutions which may be due to the limited regulatory agency resources to efficiently and effectively assess diagnostic technologies [ 105 , 106 , 107 ], in addition to limited testing infrastructure (e.g., technology, trained staff and facilities) [ 105 , 106 , 107 , 108 , 109 ].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Evidence appears to suggest that companies played a key role in enabling countries in Asia to rapidly roll-out large-scale testing programmes, by designing and manufacturing large volumes of diagnostics in these regions [ 59 , 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 ]. Our review of the literature coupled with the insights gained from our global dataset, appears to highlight that those countries with 1) limited IVD market infrastructure/research and development (R&D) capacity and 2) limited testing infrastructure (including access to diagnostic technologies, trained staff and testing facilities), were hampered in their strategic preparedness and implementation of diagnostic testing strategy’s [ 105 , 106 , 107 , 108 , 109 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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COVID-19 Impact on Diagnostic Innovations: Emerging Trends and Implications

et al. 2021

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Diagnostic testing remains the backbone of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) response, supporting containment efforts to mitigate the outbreak. The severity of this crisis and increasing capacity issues associated with polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based testing, accelerated the development of diagnostic solutions to meet demands for mass testing. The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Innovation Observatory is the national horizon scanning organization in England. Since March, the Innovation Observatory has applied advanced horizon scanning methodologies and tools to compile a diagnostic landscape, based upon data captured for molecular (MDx) and immunological (IDx) based diagnostics (commercialized/in development), for the diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2. In total we identified and tracked 1608 diagnostics, produced by 1045 developers across 54 countries. Our dataset shows the speed and scale in which diagnostics were produced and provides insights into key periods of development and shifts in trends between MDx and IDx solutions as the pandemic progressed. Stakeholders worldwide required timely and detailed intelligence to respond to major challenges, including testing capacity and regulatory issues. Our intelligence assisted UK stakeholders with assessing priorities and mitigation options throughout the pandemic. Here we present the global evolution of diagnostic innovations devised to meet changing needs, their regulation and trends across geographical regions, providing invaluable insights into the complexity of the COVID-19 phenomena.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

COVID-19 Impact on Diagnostic Innovations: Emerging Trends and Implications

et al. 2021

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“…The escalated and smooth scaling up of testing was made possible by leveraging existing capacity from other programs like Influenza Surveillance, HIV and TB work [29,30]. The role of network optimsation exercises that had been done prior to the pandemic better placed the country to respond.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Timely Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in Limited Resource Settings: The Role of the Laboratory in Zimbabwe

Namulondo¹,

Mugabe²,

Sekessai³

et al. 2021

Contemporary Developments and Perspectives in International Health Security - Volume 2

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The recommended approach for response to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, was to test to enable timely detection, isolation and contact tracing so as to reduce the rapid spread of the disease. This highlighted that the laboratory as one of the core capacities of the International Health Regulations and key technical area in the International Health Security was critical in curbing the spread of the virus. Zimbabwe embarked on testing for SARS-CoV-2 in February 2020 following the guidance and support from WHO leveraging the existing testing capacity. Testing was guided by a laboratory pillar which constituted members from different organizations partnering with the Ministry of Health and Child Care. SARS-CoV-2 testing expansion was based on a phased approach using a tiered system in which laboratory staff from lower tiers were seconded to test for coronavirus using RT-PCR with National Microbiology Reference Laboratory (NMRL) being the hub for centralized consolidation of all results. As the pandemic grew nationally, there was an increase in testing per day and reduction in turnaround time as five laboratories were fully capacitated to test using RT-PCR open platforms, thirty-three provincial and district laboratories to test using TB GeneXpert and 5 provincial laboratories to use Abbott platforms.

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“…"Test, test, and test again" has been a known strategy in identifying a case to control HIV epidemic [4]. As a suppression intervention for COVID-19 epidemic, a similar "test, test and test" strategy has been announced by WHO Director General [5]. It is not possible to test whole population at the same time to identify all positive test cases and isolate them to restrain any further transmission.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Time to and extent of widespread testing for COVID-19 outbreak: Experience from the first wave in Australia and Italy

Abedin

Khan²,

Khan

2020

Preprint

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Background: At the beginning of COVID-19 outbreak, very little was known about its control options and most of the intervention options relied mainly on other virus outbreak and influenza epidemic. Different countries started responding to this epidemic somewhat in different ways to achieve a common goal of transmission reduction. Population-wide intervention measures such as social distancing, testing and isolation were implemented in different countries. However, commonly adopted intervention measures impacted different countries in different ways. Differential effects of those interventions become apparent in Australia and Italy, where Australia's success to control the epidemic has been in limelight. Differences in time to and extent of widespread testing are likely to have differential effects on the daily number of confirmed cases in both countries.Methods: We apply panel generalized linear models for daily number of cases to explore differential effects of timing to and extent of widespread testing on daily number of cases. We have analyzed daily number of confirmed cases data from the first reported cases in Australia and Italy to 31 May 2020. Our data sets can be downloaded from an open source database at https://ourworldindata.org.Results: More tests during the early stage of outbreak prior to reach the peak may reduce the daily number of cases by almost 40%. Only 1% increase in test positivity on the (t-5)th day may incur 1.84% increase in daily number of cases on the t-th day. For 1% increase in test positivity rate on the (t-5)th day, a country with one unit higher logarithm of population density may result in 2.82 times higher number of cases on the t-th day.Conclusion: Conducting widespread testing during the early stage prior to reaching the peak has favored Australia to control the outbreak much faster than Italy. Early adoption of widespread testing with lower degree of test positivity rates flattens the curve faster. Population density has a moderating effect. Even if the test positivity rate is the same, a region with higher population density is likely to experience a peak with higher number of daily confirmed cases.

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Scaling up testing for COVID-19 in Africa: Responding to the pandemic in ways that strengthen health systems

Cited by 9 publications

References 1 publication

COVID-19 Impact on Diagnostic Innovations: Emerging Trends and Implications

COVID-19 Impact on Diagnostic Innovations: Emerging Trends and Implications

Timely Detection of SARS-CoV-2 in Limited Resource Settings: The Role of the Laboratory in Zimbabwe

Time to and extent of widespread testing for COVID-19 outbreak: Experience from the first wave in Australia and Italy

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