Skip directly to site content Skip directly to page options Skip directly to A-Z link Skip directly to A-Z link Skip directly to A-Z link
Volume 28, Supplement—December 2022
SUPPLEMENT ISSUE
Surveillance

Contribution of PEPFAR-Supported HIV and TB Molecular Diagnostic Networks to COVID-19 Testing Preparedness in 16 Countries

Erin Rottinghaus RomanoComments to Author , Katrina Sleeman, Patricia Hall-Eidson, Clement Zeh, Ravikiran Bhairavabhotla, Guoqing Zhang, Amitabh Adhikari, George Alemnji, Yolanda Rebello Cardo, Ana Pinheiro, Barbara Pocongo, Laura T. Eno, Judith D. Shang, Clement B. Ndongmo, Hilda Rosario, Orquidea Moreno, Lucia Aurora De La Cruz De León, Peter Fonjungo, Constantin Kabwe, Steve Ahuke-Mundeke, Dan Gama, Sindisiwe Dlamini, Gugu Maphalala, Tefsay Abreha, Anne Purfield, Yared Tedla Gebrehiwot, Daniel Melese Desalegn, Frank Basiye, Jane Mwangi, Nancy Bowen, Yohannes Mengistu, Shirley Lecher, Elizabeth Kampira, Muluken Kaba, Joseph Bitilinyu-Bangoh, Gillian Masamha, Sofia Omar Viegas, R. Suzanne Beard, Gerhard van Rooyen, Andreas N. Shiningavamwe, McPaul I.J, Nnaemeka C. Iriemenam, Nwando Mba, Catherine Okoi, Joel Katoro, Dennis L Kenyi, Bior K. Bior, Christina Mwangi, Susan Nabadda, Pontiano Kaleebu, Samuel L. Yingst, Prisca Chikwanda, Levi Veri, Raivi Simbi, and Heather Alexander
Author affiliations: US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Atlanta, Georgia, USA (E. Rottinghaus Romano, K. Sleeman, P. Hall-Eidson, C. Zeh, R. Bhairavabhotla, G. Zhang, A. Adhikari, H. Alexander); Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator, Washington, DC, USA (G. Alemnji); CDC Center for Global Health, Luanda, Angola (Y. Rebello Cardo); African Field Epidemiology Network, Luanda (A. Pinheiro); Instituto Nacional de Luta Contra SIDA, Luanda (B. Pocongo); CDC Center for Global Health, Yaoundé, Cameroon (L.T. Eno, J.D. Shang, C.B. Ndongmo); CDC Center for Global Health, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic (H. Rosario); Laboratorio Nacional de Salud Pública Dr. Fernando A. Defilló, Santa Domingo (O. Moreno, L.A. De La Cruz De León); CDC Center for Global Health, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (P. Fonjungo, C. Kabwe); Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale, Kinshasa (S. Ahuke-Mundeke); CDC Center for Global Health, Mbabane, Eswatini (D. Gama); Ministry of Health Mbabane National Reference Laboratory, Mbabane (S. Dlamini, G. Maphalala); Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs, Mbabane (T. Abreha); CDC Center for Global Health, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (A. Purfield, Y.T Gebrehiwot); Ethiopian Public Health Institute, Addis Ababa (D.M. Desalegn); CDC Center for Global Health, Nairobi, Kenya (F. Basiye, J. Mwangi); National Public Health Reference Laboratories, Nairobi (N. Bowen); CDC Center for Global Health, Maseru, Lesotho (Y. Mengistu, S. Lecher); CDC Center for Global Health, Lilongwe, Malawi (E. Kampira, M. Kaba); Ministry of Health Technical Support Services, Lilongwe (J. Bitilinyu-Bangoh); CDC Center for Global Health, Maputo, Mozambique (G. Masamha); Ministério da Saúde Instituto Nacional de Saúde, Maputo (S. Omar Viegas); CDC Center for Global Health, Windhoek, Namibia (R.S. Beard); Namibia Institute of Pathology Limited, Windhoek (G. van Rooyen, A.N. Shiningavamwe); CDC Center for Global Health, Abuja, Nigeria (M.I.J. Okoye, N.C. Iriemenam); Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, Abuja (N. Mba, C. Okoi); CDC Center for Global Health, Juba, South Sudan (J. Katoro, D.L. Kenyi); Ministry of Health Public Health Emergency Operations Center, Juba (B.K. Bior); CDC Center for Global Health, Kampala, Uganda (C. Mwangi); Ministry of Health National Health Laboratories and Diagnostic Services, Kampala, Uganda (S. Nabadda); Uganda Virus Research Institute, Entebbe, Uganda (P. Kaleebu); CDC Center for Global Health, Lusaka, Zambia (S.L. Yingst); CDC Center for Global Health, Harare, Zimbabwe (P. Chikwanda); Biomedical Research and Training Institute, Harare (L. Veri); Zimbabwe Ministry of Health and Child Care, Harare (R. Simbi)

Main Article

Table 2

PEPFAR-supported centralized VL and EID laboratories and instruments used for SARS-CoV-2 testing in 16 countries in their response to the COVID-19 pandemic, April 1, 2020–March 31, 2021*

Country No. PEPFAR laboratories No. (%) PEPFAR laboratories conducting SARS-CoV-2 testing No. instruments No. HIV VL and EID tests conducted in PEPFAR laboratories† No. SARS-CoV-2 tests conducted in PEPFAR laboratories No. SARS-CoV-2 tests conducted nationally (5) % SARS-CoV-2 tests performed at PEPFAR laboratories‡
Angola 2 2 (100) 2 NA No data NA NA
Cameroon 13 10 (77) 7 NA No data NA NA
DR 4 1 (25) 1 26,930 588,736 1,176,196§ 50
DRC 6 5 (83) 2 176,249 5,565 No data NA
Eswatini 4 1 (25) 1 NA No data NA NA
Ethiopia 20 15 (75) 15 325,276 630,119 2,355,880¶ 27
Kenya 10 8 (80) 25 1,348,294 401,402 571,413# 70
Lesotho 6 3 (50) 0 189,631 47,006 No data NA
Malawi 11 11 (100) 18 580,578 113,738 56,987¶ 200
Mozambique 16 5 (31) 5 1,061,555 378,029 472,224# 80
Namibia 8 4 (50) 3 NA No data NA NA
Nigeria 12 4 (33) 10 1,987,452 208,317 702,055§ 30
South Sudan 1 0 (0) 0 NA 0 NA NA
Uganda 1 1 (100) 11 1,459,010 279,176 851,514§ 33
Zambia 24 24 (100) 10 1,025,000 600,000 1,218,207¶ 49
Zimbabwe 15 15 (100) 11 650,423 89,504 428,121# 21
Total 153 109 (71) 121 8,830,398 3,341,592 7,832,597 42

*DR, Dominican Republic; DRC, Democratic Republic of Congo; EID, early infant diagnosis; NA, not applicable; PEPFAR, US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief; VL, viral load. †Number of HIV VL and EID and national SARS-CoV-2 tests are only shown for those countries reporting SARS-CoV-2 testing volumes in PEPFAR-supported laboratories. For countries not reporting SARS-CoV-2 testing volumes in PEPFAR-supported laboratories, HIV VL and EID and national SARS-CoV-2 test numbers are listed as NA. ‡ Percentage of SARS-CoV-2 tests performed at PEPFAR-supported laboratories was only calculated for countries with data available for both PEPFAR and national SARS-CoV-2 testing numbers. For countries without both PEPFAR and national SARS-CoV-2 testing numbers available, % of SARS-CoV-2 tests performed at PEPFAR laboratories is listed as NA. §National SARS-CoV-2 test numbers represent the number of PCR tests. ¶Test type for national SARS-CoV-2 test numbers was uncited or listed as unclear. #National SARS-CoV-2 test numbers represent the number of PCR and antigen tests.

Main Article

References
  1. US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. Where we work. 2021 [cited 2021 Nov 4]. https://www.state.gov/where-we-work-pepfar
  2. World Health Organization. WHO Director-General’s opening remarks at the media briefing on COVID-19, 11 March 2020 [cited 2021 Nov 4]. https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19---11-march-2020
  3. US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. PEPFAR technical guidance in context of COVID-19 pandemic. 2020 Mar 25 [cited 2021 Nov 4]. https://www.state.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/PEPFAR-Technical-Guidance-in-Context-of-COVID-19-Pandemic_03.25.20.pdf
  4. Nkengasong  J. Let Africa into the market for COVID-19 diagnostics. Nature. 2020;580:565. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  5. Hasell  J, Mathieu  E, Beltekian  D, Macdonald  B, Giattino  C, Ortiz-Ospina  E, et al. A cross-country database of COVID-19 testing. Sci Data. 2020;7:345. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  6. Degli-Angeli  E, Dragavon  J, Huang  ML, Lucic  D, Cloherty  G, Jerome  KR, et al. Validation and verification of the Abbott RealTime SARS-CoV-2 assay analytical and clinical performance. J Clin Virol. 2020;129:104474. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  7. Federal Drug Administration. In vitro diagnostics EUAs. Molecular diagnostic tests for SARS-CoV-2. 2021 [cited 2021 Sep 24]. https://www.fda.gov/medical-devices/coronavirus-disease-2019-covid-19-emergency-use-authorizations-medical-devices/in-vitro-diagnostics-euas-molecular-diagnostic-tests-sars-cov-2
  8. Hans  L, Steegen  K, Ketseoglou  I, Mahlumba  Z, Cassim  N, Wiggill  T, et al. Preparing for the next pandemic: Lessons from rapid scale-up of SARS-CoV-2 testing in a South African high-throughput automated HIV molecular laboratory. Int J Infect Dis. 2021;110:13. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  9. Hirschhorn  JW, Kegl  A, Dickerson  T, Glen  WB Jr, Xu  G, Alden  J, et al. Verification and validation of SARS-CoV-2 assay performance on the Abbott m2000 and Alinity m systems. J Clin Microbiol. 2021;59:e0311920. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  10. Kogoj  R, Kmetič  P, Oštrbenk Valenčak  A, Fujs Komloš  K, Seme  K, Sagadin  M, et al. Real-life head-to-head comparison of performance of two high-throughput automated assays for the detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA in nasopharyngeal swabs: the Alinity m and cobas 6800 SARS-CoV-2 assays. J Mol Diagn. 2021;23:9208. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  11. World Health Organization. WHO emergency use listing for in vitro diagnostics (IVDs) detecting SARS-CoV-2. 2021 [cited 2020 Sep 24]. https://extranet.who.int/pqweb/sites/default/files/documents/210430_EUL_SARS-CoV-2_product_list.pdf
  12. World Health Organization. Global tuberculosis report 2021. 2021 Oct 14 [cited 2021 Nov 4]. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240037021
  13. Soko  RN, Burke  RM, Feasey  HRA, Sibande  W, Nliwasa  M, Henrion  MYR, et al. Effects of coronavirus disease pandemic on tuberculosis notifications, Malawi. Emerg Infect Dis. 2021;27:18319. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  14. Aziz  AB, Raqib  R, Khan  WA, Rahman  M, Haque  R, Alam  M, et al. Integrated control of COVID-19 in resource-poor countries. Int J Infect Dis. 2020;101:98101. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  15. Kavanagh  MM, Erondu  NA, Tomori  O, Dzau  VJ, Okiro  EA, Maleche  A, et al. Access to lifesaving medical resources for African countries: COVID-19 testing and response, ethics, and politics. Lancet. 2020;395:17358. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar
  16. Nichols  K, Girdwood  SJ, Inglis  A, Ondoa  P, Sy  KTL, Benade  M, et al. Bringing data analytics to the design of optimized diagnostic networks in low- and middle-income countries: process, terms and definitions. Diagnostics (Basel). 2020;11:E22. DOIPubMedGoogle Scholar

Main Article

Page created: October 05, 2022
Page updated: December 11, 2022
Page reviewed: December 11, 2022
The conclusions, findings, and opinions expressed by authors contributing to this journal do not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the Public Health Service, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or the authors' affiliated institutions. Use of trade names is for identification only and does not imply endorsement by any of the groups named above.
file_external