COVID-19-Related Testing, Knowledge and Behaviors among Severe and Chronic Non-Communicable Disease Patients in Neno District, Malawi: A Prospective Cohort Study.

COVID-19-related knowledge and behaviors remain essential for controlling the spread of disease, especially among vulnerable patients with advanced, chronic diseases. We prospectively assessed changes over 11 months in COVID-19-related testing, knowledge, and behaviors among patients with non-communicable diseases in rural Malawi using four rounds of telephone interviews between November 2020 to October 2021. The most commonly reported COVID-19-related risks among patients included visiting health facilities (35-49%), attending mass gatherings (33-36%), and travelling outside the district (14-19%). Patients reporting having experienced COVID-like symptoms increased from 30% in December 2020 to 41% in October 2021. However, only 13% of patients had ever received a COVID-19 test by the end of the study period. Respondents answered 67-70% of the COVID-19 knowledge questions correctly, with no significant changes over time. Hand washing, wearing face masks and maintaining a safe distance were the most frequently reported strategies to prevent the spreading of COVID-19. Wearing face masks significantly improved over time (p < 0.001). Although the majority reported accurate knowledge about COVID-19 and enhanced adherence to infection prevention measures over time, patients commonly visited locations where they could be exposed to COVID-19. Government and other stakeholders should increase COVID-19 testing accessibility to primary and secondary facilities.

The impact of COVID-19 and national pandemic responses on health service utilisation in seven low- and middle-income countries.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted health services worldwide, which may have led to increased mortality and secondary disease outbreaks. Disruptions vary by patient population, geographic area, and service. While many reasons have been put forward to explain disruptions, few studies have empirically investigated their causes. OBJECTIVE: We quantify disruptions to outpatient services, facility-based deliveries, and family planning in seven low- and middle-income countries during the COVID-19 pandemic and quantify relationships between disruptions and the intensity of national pandemic responses. METHODS: We leveraged routine data from 104 Partners In Health-supported facilities from January 2016 to December 2021. We first quantified COVID-19-related disruptions in each country by month using negative binomial time series models. We then modelled the relationship between disruptions and the intensity of national pandemic responses, as measured by the stringency index from the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker. RESULTS: For all the studied countries, we observed at least one month with a significant decline in outpatient visits during the COVID-19 pandemic. We also observed significant cumulative drops in outpatient visits across all months in Lesotho, Liberia, Malawi, Rwanda, and Sierra Leone. A significant cumulative decrease in facility-based deliveries was observed in Haiti, Lesotho, Mexico, and Sierra Leone. No country had significant cumulative drops in family planning visits. For a 10-unit increase in the average monthly stringency index, the proportion deviation in monthly facility outpatient visits compared to expected fell by 3.9% (95% CI: -5.1%, -1.6%). No relationship between stringency of pandemic responses and utilisation was observed for facility-based deliveries or family planning. CONCLUSIONS: Context-specific strategies show the ability of health systems to sustain essential health services during the pandemic. The link between pandemic responses and healthcare utilisation can inform purposeful strategies to ensure communities have access to care and provide lessons for promoting the utilisation of health services elsewhere.

Attitudes toward COVID-19 Vaccines among Patients with Complex Non-Communicable Disease and Their Caregivers in Rural Malawi.

Current low COVID-19 vaccination rates in low- and middle-income countries reflect an inequitable global vaccine distribution; however, local attitudes towards the COVID-19 vaccine are an important factor to meet vaccination benchmarks. We describe attitudes toward the uptake of the COVID-19 vaccine and perceptions among patients with NCDs and their caregivers using cross-sectional data collected through telephone interviews in Neno, Malawi. Out of 126 survey respondents, 71% were patients, and 29% were caregivers. Twenty-two percent of respondents had received at least one dose at the interview (95% CI: 15-30%), with 19% being fully vaccinated. Only 24% (95% CI: 12-40%) of unvaccinated respondents reported that they would accept an approved vaccine if it were offered today. Vaccines were perceived as unsafe or designed to harm and commonly associated with death, severe disability, infertility, and evil. However, over two-thirds reported high levels of trust in health care workers (73%) and community health workers (72%) as sources of information for the COVID-19 vaccine. Although the uptake of COVID-19 vaccine in this vulnerable population was three times than the national average, a low intention to be vaccinated persists among the unvaccinated. Strong trust in health care workers suggests that community engagement could help increase vaccine acceptance.

Syndromic surveillance with monthly aggregate health systems information data for COVID-19 pandemic response in Neno, Malawi: a monitoring study

Background In the context of diminutive COVID-19 screening and testing, syndromic surveillance can be used to identify areas with higher-than-expected SARS-CoV-2 symptoms for targeted public health interventions. We used syndromic surveillance to monitor potential SARS-CoV-2 outbreaks in 14 health facilities in the Neno district of rural Malawi. Methods We monitored three indicators identified as potential symptoms of SARS-CoV-2 infection: the proportion of outpatient visits for fast-breathing cases in children under 5 years (FBC<5);the proportion of suspected malaria cases confirmed as non-malaria in children under 5 years (NMC<5);and the same indicator in individuals aged 5 years and older (NMC≥5). We extracted data aggregated by month and at the health facility-level from the District Health Information System. With data from January, 2016, to February, 2020, as a baseline, we used a linear model with a negative binomial distribution to estimate expected proportions for the indicators in absence of the COVID-19 pandemic with 95% prediction intervals (PI) for March, 2020, to July, 2021. We compared the observed proportions to the expected rates, focusing on the first two waves of infections (June to July, 2020, and January to March, 2021). Findings The proportion of FBC<5 was consistently higher than expected, with a peak in May, 2020, when 2·5% of outpatient visits were fast breathing cases in children younger than 5 years of age (compared with the expected rate of 0·8% [95% PI 0·4–1·5]). NMC<5 was as expected throughout the study period. The NMC≥5 indicator remained as expected, except for increases in suspected cases tested negative for malaria, to 31·3% (from the expected 18·6% [95% PI 12·3–28·7]) in November, 2020, and to 32·5% (from the expected 21·7% [95% PI 14·2–32·2]) in July, 2021. Interpretation An increase in FBC<5 and NMC≥5 before observed COVID-19 waves might indicate SARS-CoV-2 infections that were missed before robust testing. This tendency was not seen in NMC<5, which can represent differences in symptomatology leading to decreased health-seeking behaviours for this age group. Syndromic surveillance can allow for real-time responses at facilities, including increased and focused testing and screening to identify potential SARS-CoV-2 infections. Funding Supported by Canadian Institutes of Health Research.