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FIND and Unitaid invest US$ 50 million to speed lifesaving testing and treatment solutions to the COVID-19 pandemic’s frontlines

To strengthen the frontline response against COVID-19 in several low- and middle-income countries, FIND and Unitaid made grants available in November 2021 to enhance testing and treatment. 

The grants aimed to contain the ongoing spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, improve access to diagnostic tests and treatment and build capacity for programmes to test, trace and isolate patients with COVID-19. 

The grants also addressed access inequality to tests and treatment and targeted countries in Africa, Southeast Asia, Latin America and the Western Pacific, where testing capacity was insufficient and life-saving treatments were practically unavailable. 

Another aim of the grants is to generate evidence to strengthen World Health Organization (WHO) policies and guidelines. 

The grants will generate high-quality evidence to inform  WHO  guidelines and national policies addressing the optimal approaches to scaling new testing and treatment solutions.

The importance of combining testing and treating was underscored by the development of new oral antivirals, such as molnupiravir, as these are simple to use and deliver to healthcare settings, and less expensive to produce. Developing this strong link is essential when effective medication becomes available. 

The grants will use existing laboratory and testing networks to offer additional testing options, such as simple, accurate, and affordable antigen-detection rapid diagnostic tests (Ag RDTs) and COVID-19 self-tests. 

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Resource Centre - Media & Press

Six in seven COVID-19 infections go undetected in Africa

A new assessment by the World Health Organization (WHO) shows that only 14.2% – or one in seven – COVID-19 infections are being detected in Africa. To reverse that trend and curb transmission, the WHO Regional Office for Africa today announced a new initiative to enhance community screening for COVID-19 in eight countries. The programme aims to reach more than 7 million people with rapid diagnostic tests in the next year.

The WHO analysis used the COVID-19 calculator developed by Resolve to Save Lives which estimates infections based on reported number of cases and deaths and an infection fatality rate grounded in population-based studies. It found that as of 10 October 2021 the cumulative number of COVID-19 infections is estimated to be 59 million in Africa, which is seven times more than the over 8 million cases reported.

The countries participating in the programme are Burundi, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Republic of the Congo, Senegal and Zambia. To kick off implementation, WHO has disbursed US$ 1.8 million to the eight countries. WHO will support countries to interrupt disease transmission, through active case finding by deploying teams in local communities to seek out possible contacts of people who have tested positive for COVID-19 and offer antigen rapid diagnostic tests.

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Africa CDC, FIND Partner to Build Capacity for COVID-19 Rapid Diagnostic Tests in Africa

New partnership to prepare for rapid antigen testing in Africa

On September 11, 2022 the Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics (FIND) and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) announced a new partnership to prepare for the introduction of new high quality antigen rapid diagnostic tests for Covid-19 over the next three years.

Fast and reliable testing has emerged as a cornerstone of the global response to the COVID-19 pandemic but has only sometimes been available to African countries during the pandemic. 

Access to diagnostics also presents a significant hurdle in the fight against Covid-19 and other diseases, including TB and malaria.

Regulatory interventions have smoothed out the supply of accurate and fast antigen tests, but it has now become necessary to build capacity to ensure a speedy rollout.

While there have always been global inequities in accessing diagnostics, these became clearer and worse during the Covid-19 pandemic, with supply chain wars and quality issues impacting heavily on the situation.

In response to the announcement Dr. John Nkengasong, Director of Africa CDC, stressed the importance of fast and accurate results so that patients can be isolated and health workers can trace close contacts, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs).

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Resource Centre - Publications

100,000 genomes – in Africa, for Africa

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Resource Centre - Publications

Near-complete genome of SARS-CoV-2 Delta variant of concern identified in a symptomatic dog (Canis lupus familiaris) in Botswana

We sought to investigate whether SARS-CoV-2 was present, and to perform full-length genomic sequencing, in a 5-year-old male crossbreed dog that presented with flu-like symptoms (including a dry hacking cough and mild dyspnea) and resided in a household with 3 adults that were diagnosed with SARS CoV-2 infection. Next generation sequencing based on MinION technology was performed on amplicons that were generated using a reverse transcriptase real-time polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) of confirmed positive SARS-CoV-2 nasopharyngeal and buccal swabs, as well as a bronchoalveolar lavage with mean qCt value of 36 based on the Nucleocapsid gene. Descriptive comparisons to known sequences in Botswana and internationally were made using mutation profiling analysis and phylogenetic inferences based on maximum likelihood. Samples from the dog’s owners were not available. A near-full length SARS-CoV-2 genome (~90% coverage) was successfully genotyped and classified under clade 20 O and Pango-Lineage AY.43 (Pango v.4.0.6 PLEARN-v1.3; 2022-04-21), which is a sub-lineage of the Delta variant of concern (VOC) (formerly called B.1.617.2, first detected in India). We did not identify novel mutations that may be used to distinguish SARS-CoV-2 isolates from the dog and humans. In addition to S region mutation profiling, we performed phylogenetic analysis using Delta sequences from Botswana (n=1303); expectedly, the sequence isolated from the dog was closely related to the Delta sequences, particularly the AY.43, AY.116, and B.1.617.2 sub-lineages that were reported in Botswana within the same time frame. This is the first documented report of human-associated SARS-CoV-2 infection in a dog in Botswana. Although the direction of transmission remains unknown, this study further affirms the need for monitoring pets during different COVID-19 waves for possible clinically relevant SARS-CoV-2 transmissions between species.

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A year of genomic surveillance reveals how the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic unfolded in Africa

The progression of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic in Africa has so far been heterogeneous, and the full impact is not yet well understood. In this study, we describe the genomic epidemiology using a dataset of 8746 genomes from 33 African countries and two overseas territories. We show that the epidemics in most countries were initiated by importations predominantly from Europe, which diminished after the early introduction of international travel restrictions. As the pandemic progressed, ongoing transmission in many countries and increasing mobility led to the emergence and spread within the continent of many variants of concern and interest, such as B.1.351, B.1.525, A.23.1, and C.1.1. Although distorted by low sampling numbers and blind spots, the findings highlight that Africa must not be left behind in the global pandemic response, otherwise it could become a source for new variants.

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Rapid epidemic expansion of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant in southern Africa

Health Poverty Action Visiting Hospitals at Kompong Chhnang & Battambong Province

The SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in southern Africa has been characterized by three distinct waves. The first was associated with a mix of SARS-CoV-2 lineages, while the second and third waves were driven by the Beta (B.1.351) and Delta (B.1.617.2) variants, respectively1,2,3. In November 2021, genomic surveillance teams in South Africa and Botswana detected a new SARS-CoV-2 variant associated with a rapid resurgence of infections in Gauteng province, South Africa. Within three days of the first genome being uploaded, it was designated a variant of concern (Omicron, B.1.1.529) by the World Health Organization and, within three weeks, had been identified in 87 countries. The Omicron variant is exceptional for carrying over 30 mutations in the spike glycoprotein, which are predicted to influence antibody neutralization and spike function4. Here we describe the genomic profile and early transmission dynamics of Omicron, highlighting the rapid spread in regions with high levels of population immunity.

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Emergence of SARS-CoV-2 Omicron lineages BA.4 and BA.5 in South Africa

Three lineages (BA.1, BA.2 and BA.3) of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) Omicron variant of concern predominantly drove South Africa’s fourth Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) wave. We have now identified two new lineages, BA.4 and BA.5, responsible for a fifth wave of infections. The spike proteins of BA.4 and BA.5 are identical, and similar to BA.2 except for the addition of 69–70 deletion (present in the Alpha variant and the BA.1 lineage), L452R (present in the Delta variant), F486V and the wild-type amino acid at Q493. The two lineages differ only outside of the spike region. The 69–70 deletion in spike allows these lineages to be identified by the proxy marker of S-gene target failure, on the background of variants not possessing this feature. BA.4 and BA.5 have rapidly replaced BA.2, reaching more than 50% of sequenced cases in South Africa by the first week of April 2022. Using a multinomial logistic regression model, we estimated growth advantages for BA.4 and BA.5 of 0.08 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.08–0.09) and 0.10 (95% CI: 0.09–0.11) per day, respectively, over BA.2 in South Africa. The continued discovery of genetically diverse Omicron lineages points to the hypothesis that a discrete reservoir, such as human chronic infections and/or animal hosts, is potentially contributing to further evolution and dispersal of the virus.

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Resource Centre - Publications

The Impact of COVID-19 On HIV, TB And Malaria Services and Systems For Health: A Snapshot from 502 Health Facilities across Africa and Asia

The impact of COVID-19 on HIV, TB and Malaria Services and Systems for Health: A snapshot from 502 health facilities across Africa and Asia.

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