Monitoring COVID-19 occurrence in a resource-limited setting – COVID-19 sentinel surveillance in Malawi

Le résumé fourni par la source

The routine COVID-19 surveillance in Malawi that relied on retrospective reporting could not efficiently steer timely measures to the rapidly evolving pandemic. To monitor real-time changes in infections and inform the COVID-19 response, we implemented an active sentinel surveillance system from July to December 2022. Symptomatic and asymptomatic patients with SARS-CoV-2 in selected health facilities (HFs) and anyone aged ≥5 years entering at Point of Entry (PoEs) sites were eligible to participate. Self-reported epidemiological and clinical data, and nasopharyngeal specimens were collected from 9,305 participants. A higher overall SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR positivity rate was observed at HFs, 8.9% among symptomatic and 6.5% among asymptomatic patients, versus 3.5% at PoEs. The positivity trends among symptomatic and asymptomatic patient groups showed a similar pattern throughout the period. This active surveillance complemented routine surveillance, especially during a low incidence period and highlighted the need to target both symptomatic and asymptomatic populations.

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.