Month: Apr 2023

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COVID-19 Response in Ethiopia

Ethiopia recorded 372 000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and around 6800 deaths in the first two years of the pandemic. 

Since March 2022, when the first case was recorded, health facilities diverted all available resources to preventing and treating COVID-19, and this negatively impacted on maternal, newborn, and child health, non-communicable diseases, surgery, and HIV, TB, and malaria. 

Many health facilities closed down completely.

Disruptions in the supply chain system led to a stock-out of essential drugs and a shortage of medical equipment.

The Global Fund supported Ethiopia with US$111.1-million to fight COVID-19, focusing on strengthening the community health system, which is a well-integrated programme in the country. 

Plans are to further assist with surveillance programmes, strengthen laboratory systems, COVID-19 case finding, contact tracing, case management, and home-based isolation and care. 

Further investments also targeted infection prevention and control, risk communication and community engagement, and protecting vulnerable populations.

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COVID-19 Response in Peru

Health Poverty Action Visiting Hospitals at Kompong Chhnang & Battambong Province

The COVID-19 pandemic had a devastating impact on Peru’s health system and economy.

It is one of the countries with the highest numbers of pandemic-linked excess deaths in the world. 

HIV and TB services were severely disrupted. 

The Global Fund supported Peru with US$14.9-million to fight COVID-19, including support for the procurement of diagnostic tests, personal protective equipment (PPE), and scaling up oxygen support for COVID-19 patients. 

A part of this investment was used to get TB and HIV programmes back on track. This intervention includes the purchase of mobile units (vans) and campaigns to find people with TB, support for patients with multidrug-resistant TB, and the use of a mobile app to help patients with MDR-TB to adhere to their treatment regime. 

Strong community engagement forms an integral part of the programme. This includes community-based disease monitoring and efforts to reduce stigma and discrimination.

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COVID-19 Response in the Philippines

Health Poverty Action Visiting Hospitals at Kompong Chhnang & Battambong Province

The Philippines has been severely affected by COVID-19, with more than 3 million confirmed cases and around 52 700 deaths by 2022.

Lockdown measures and community quarantines were introduced in March 2022. 

The impact of the pandemic was particularly visible in the TB and HIV programs in the Philippines, with testing numbers dropping across the board. 

In 2021, COVID-19 cases surged again as the Delta variant spread.

The Global Fund supported the Philippines with US$37.7-million to fight COVID-19 in grants for the expansion of testing capacity and support to develop a case management strategy.

Further interventions focused on mitigating the impact of the pandemic on HIV, TB, and malaria programmes.

The Philippines was one of the first countries to develop a strong, comprehensive TB adaptive plan for the impact of COVID-19.

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COVID-19 Response in Thailand

Health Poverty Action Visiting Hospitals at Kompong Chhnang & Battambong Province

Thailand was the first country outside China to report a COVID-19 case. 

Containment measures, like lockdowns and travel restrictions,  were implemented as early as March 2020. This was initially successful, but devastated the foreign tourism sector, which accounts for around 20% of Thailand’s GDP.

This early success, keeping COVID-19 case numbers low, could not be sustained. 

By the latter part of 2021, the Delta variant became the dominant global strain of SARS-CoV-2, and the health system was overwhelmed by the surge in cases.

The Global Fund assisted Thailand with the procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE) and COVID-19 diagnostic tests. 

A strong focus on local key populations guided the implementation of interventions with the help of broader civil society. 

This inclusive approach allowed for the implementation of tailored measures that were sensitive to the needs of diverse communities.

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RFP: Community-Based Applications of SARS-CoV-2 Antigen Rapid Diagnostic Tests (Ag RDTs) for Timely and Effective Public Health Response

Health Poverty Action Visiting Hospitals at Kompong Chhnang & Battambong Province

Testing for SARS-CoV-2 infection is essential for the control of COVID-19, enabling epidemiological surveillance and implementation of public health measures. At the community level, swift identification and isolation of new cases, combined with contact tracing, are important tools for controlling virus transmission.

In December 2021, FIND’s Global Health Security (GHS) Operational Research (OR) team commissioned 17 community-based SARS-CoV-2 testing approaches in low-and middle-income countries (LMICs). The selection process was highly competitive as it became widely recognized among public health specialists that a health center-based approach was insufficient with regards to reducing SARS-CoV-2 transmission within communities. The proposals selected all demonstrated a clear community-based strategy for using SARS-CoV-2 antigen diagnostic tests for a timely and effective public health response.

The studies commissioned took place in 13 countries: Uganda, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Jamaica, Cameroon, Zambia, Kenya, Thailand, Suriname, Mozambique, South Africa, Mali, and Tanzania. More information on the outcomes of these research studies will be available in 2023. 

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RFP: Innovations in COVID-19 Antigen RDT Rollout in Underserved Populations

Street scene outside the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital, Delhi.December 2017Photo credit: FIND / Ben Phillips

Searching for innovative ways to implement screening programmes for SARS-CoV-2 in underserved communities,  the ACT-Accelerator, FIND and IRD Global issued this request for proposals in May 2021.

The focus of the programmes was low- and middle-income countries. Globally stark inequities exist, with these countries not having adequate access to diagnostics during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator is a global collaboration focused on accelerating the development, production, and equitable access to COVID-19 tests, treatments, and vaccines. 

FIND is a global non-profit organization focusing on diagnostics for major diseases, and IRD Global is a global health delivery and research organization.

The project was projected to involve customizing training materials, conducting training and proficiency assessment of trainees, and implementing and monitoring testing programmes within local policies and guidelines. 

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Project of COVID-19 active case finding using antigen rapid diagnostic tests in the Democratic Republic of the Congo

The rollout in Africa of new World Health Organization (WHO)-approved SARS-CoV-2 rapid antigen test (Ag-RDTs) has significantly increased screening capacity in some African countries, like Zimbabwe and Rwanda, marking a real turning point in the fight against COVID-19 in the Africa region. Although the DRC is considered a pioneer in scaling up the use of Ag-RDTs through health facility and community-based COVID-19 active case finding, testing capacity remains very low, with a current average of 1.5 tests carried out per 10,000 population per week, against a standard of at least 10 tests per 10,000 per week. 

Given this low screening capacity, it is clear that there is under-reporting of COVID-19 cases. According to WHO AFRO estimates, only 1 in 7 cases would be detected in DRC. In an attempt to improve the case detection rate, the Ministry of Health, with the technical and financial support from the WHO DRC country office, has implemented since January 2021 an innovative pilot project for active case finding of COVID-19 using Ag-RDT screening in the community and in health facilities. This project is currently operational in 37 active health zones in 8 of the most affected provinces. 

This report presents the cumulative results obtained, lessons learned, challenges, and future prospects after 9 months of implementation (January to September 2021) of the activities of this pilot strategy of active COVID-19 case findings in the DRC community using Ag-RDTs. This report marks the official end of the GAVI (Phase I) and FIND (Phase II) funding. 

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Monitored Implementation of COVID-19 Rapid Antigen Screening at Taxi Ranks in Johannesburg, South Africa

The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the adoption of many innovations, including digital solutions to support access to diagnostics. These digital tools can be used by countries to expand support community-based testing and lessen the need to travel distances to clinical settings by moving testing meet patients where they are. 

This operational research study examines the utility of rapid diagnostics tests (RDTs) for COVID-19 detection in combination with an end-to-end digital health solution.This study took place between June and September 2021 at three local taxi ranks  in Johannesburg, South Africa. Over 15,000 members of the public were screened for COVID-19 risk factors via a digital questionnaire. Overall, the usage of the digital tool combined with RDTs were shown to improve decentralized service delivery, results reporting, and follow-up of COVID-19 testing at the community level. 

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WHO Public Health Labs Webinar – Accelerating community access to SARS-CoV-2 testing

Health Poverty Action Visiting Hospitals at Kompong Chhnang & Battambong Province

In this webinar, co-hosted by WHO and FIND, speakers discussed efforts undertaken through the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT)-Accelerator to enable countries to improve their community-based testing for SARS-CoV-2 through the development of testing protocols and training of health-care workers, with experience sharing from Somalia and Zimbabwe.

Participants also discussed the newly published interim guidance on Use of SARS-CoV-2 antigen-detection rapid diagnostic tests for COVID-19 self-testing.

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Update on global access to testing survey

Health Poverty Action Visiting Hospitals at Kompong Chhnang & Battambong Province

This webinar, delivered in February 2022 by FIND via the ACT-A CSO Platform, captures data on perceptions on access to COVID-19. The webinar covers approach and methodologies for the survey as well as preliminary findings. 

The survey recorded over 12,000 responses in 10 countries: Brazil, India, Egypt, Indonesia, Kenya, Peru, South Africa, Tunisia, Uganda, and Viet Nam. Over 50% of respondents reported difficulty in accessing a test when needed, with key contribung factors being lack of testing facilities, prohibitive costs, and the difficulty traveling to testing facilities.