Characteristics of cases and deaths arising from SARS-CoV-2 infection in Zambia: March 2020 to April 2021.

Introduction: since March 2020, Zambia has been experiencing a SARS-CoV-2 epidemic. Little data has been reported on cases and deaths arising from COVID-19 in Africa. We described the demographic characteristics of these cases and deaths in Zambia. Methods: we analyzed data on all persons testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 from 18th March 2020 to 25th April 2021 in Zambia. COVID-19 cases were identified through port-of-entry surveillance, contact-tracing, health-care-worker testing, health-facility-based and community-based screening and community-death screening. All diagnoses were confirmed using real-time-polymerase-chain-reaction and rapid-antigen-test-kits of nasopharyngeal specimens. We analyzed age, sex, and date-of-reporting according to whether the cases or deaths occurred during the first wave (1st July to 15th September 2020) or the second wave (15th December 2020 to 10th April 2021). We computed Mann-Whitney-U-test to compare medians of continuous variables and chi-square tests to compare differences between proportions using R. Results: a total 1,246 (1.36%) deaths were recorded among 91,378 confirmed cases during March 2020-April 2021 in Zambia. Persons who died were older than those who did not (median age 50 years versus 32.0 years, p< 0.001). Although only 4.7% of cases were among persons aged >60 years, most deaths (31.6%) occurred in this age group (p<0.001). More deaths (83.5%) occurred in the community than in health facilities (p<0.001). Conclusion: during the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Zambia, most deaths occurred in the community, indicating potential gaps in public health messaging about COVID-19. Improving health-seeking behaviors for COVID-19 through public messaging campaigns and engaging key community stakeholders in Zambia might reduce avoidable mortality. As the group most impacted by COVID-19 mortality, older persons might need enhanced outreach and linkage to care.

Spatial factors for COVID-19 associated community deaths in an urban area of Lusaka, Zambia: an observational study.

We retrospectively analyzed spatial factors for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)-associated community deaths i.e., brought-in-dead (BID) in Lusaka, Zambia, between March and July 2020. A total of 127 cases of BID with geocoordinate data of their houses were identified during the study period. Median interquartile range (IQR) of the age of these cases was 49 (34-70) years old, and 47 cases (37.0%) were elderly individuals over 60 years old. Seventy-five cases (75%) of BID were identified in July 2020, when the total number of cases and deaths was largest in Zambia. Among those whose information regarding their underlying medical condition was available, hypertension was most common (22.9%, 8/35). Among Lusaka's 94 townships, the numbers (median, IQR) of cases were significantly larger in those characterized as unplanned residential areas compared to planned areas (1.0, 0.0-4.0 vs 0.0, 0.0-1.0; p=0.030). The proportion of individuals who require more than 30 minutes to obtain water was correlated with a larger number of BID cases per 105 population in each township (rho=0.28, p=0.006). The number of BID cases was larger in unplanned residential areas, which highlighted the importance of targeted public health interventions specifically to those areas to reduce the total number of COVID-19 associated community deaths in Lusaka. Brought-in-dead surveillance might be beneficial in monitoring epidemic conditions of COVID-19 in such high-risk areas. Furthermore, inadequate access to water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) might be associated with such distinct geographical distributions of COVID-19 associated community deaths in Lusaka, Zambia.

The UTH-UMB Global Health Education Collaboration: Building a Bidirectional Exchange Based on Equity and Reciprocity.

The global health exchange program between the University Teaching Hospitals (UTH) of Lusaka, Zambia and the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) has been operating since 2015. As trainees and facilitators of this exchange program, we describe our experiences working in Lusaka and Baltimore, and strengths and challenges of the partnership. Since 2015, we have facilitated rotations for 71 UMB trainees, who spent four weeks on the Infectious Disease (ID) team at UTH. Since 2019 with funding from UMB, nine UTH ID trainee physicians spent up to six weeks each rotating on various ID consult services at University of Maryland Medical Center (UMMC). Challenges in global health rotations can include inadequate preparation or inappropriate expectations among high-income country trainees, low-value experiences for low- and middle-income country trainees, lack of appropriate mentorship at sites, and power imbalances in research collaborations. We try to mitigate these issues by ensuring pre-departure and on-site orientation for UMB trainees, cross-cultural mentored experiences for all trainees, and intentional sharing of authorship and credit on scientific collaborations. We present a description of our medical education collaboration as a successful model for building equitable and reciprocal collaborations between low- and middle-income countries and high-income countries, and offer suggestions for future program initiatives to enhance global health education equity among participants and organizations.

Treatment-Experienced Patients on Third-Line Therapy: A Retrospective Cohort of Treatment Outcomes at the HIV Advanced Treatment Centre, University Teaching Hospital, Zambia.

Antiretroviral therapy (ART) uptake continues to increase across sub-Saharan Africa and emergence of drug-resistant HIV mutations poses significant challenges to management of treatment-experienced patients with virologic failure. In Zambia, new third-line ART (TLART) guidelines including use of dolutegravir (DTG) were introduced in 2018. We assessed virologic suppression, immunologic response, and HIV drug-resistant mutations (DRMs) among patients on TLART at the University Teaching Hospital (UTH) in Lusaka, Zambia. We conducted a retrospective review of patients enrolled at UTH on TLART for >6 months between January 2010 and June 30, 2021. CD4 and HIV viral load (VL) at TLART initiation and post-initiation were assessed to determine virologic and immunologic outcomes. Regression analysis using bivariate and multivariate methods to describe baseline characteristics, virologic, and immunologic response to TLART was performed. A total of 345 patients met inclusion criteria; women comprised 57.6% (199/345) of the cohort. Median age at HIV diagnosis was 30 (interquartile range: 17.3-36.8). In 255 (73.8%) patients with at least two VLs, VL decreased from mean of 3.45 log10 copies/mL (standard deviation [SD]: 2.02) to 1.68 log10 copies/mL (SD: 1.79). Common ARVs prescribed included DTG (89.9%), tenofovir disoproxil fumarate (68.7%), and darunavir boosted with ritonavir (66.4%); 170 (49.3%) patients had genotypes; mutations consisted of 88.8% nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor, 86.5% non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor, and 55.9% protease inhibitor. VL suppression to <1,000 copies/mL was achieved in 225 (78.9%) patients. DRM frequency ranged from 56% to 89% depending on drug class. Treatment-experienced patients receiving TLART in Zambia achieved high rates of suppression despite high proportions of HIV mutations illustrating TLART effectiveness in the DTG era.

Retrospective Review of Virologic and Immunologic Response in Treatment-Experienced Patients on Third-Line HIV Therapy in Lusaka, Zambia.

Established antiretroviral therapy (ART) programs in sub-Saharan Africa have well-defined first-and second-line therapies but no standard third-line ART regimen. The impact of third-line ART on patients with multiclass-resistant HIV in resource-limited settings has not been well characterized. We conducted a retrospective review of patients on third-line ART at the University Teaching Hospital in Lusaka, Zambia. We assessed virologic and immunologic outcomes following 6 months of third-line therapy and found among those with a documented viral load, viral suppression (≤1000 copies/ml) at 24 weeks was 95% (63/66) with a mean increase in CD4 count of 116 cells/mm3 and viral suppression of 63% (63/100) by imputation of missing data. This study suggests that third-line therapy is clinically and virologically effective among patients with multiclass-resistance in a resource-limited setting in sub-Saharan Africa.