Assessing the added value of linking electronic health records to improve the prediction of self-reported COVID-19 testing and diagnosis.

Since the beginning of the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, a focus of research has been to identify risk factors associated with COVID-19-related outcomes, such as testing and diagnosis, and use them to build prediction models. Existing studies have used data from digital surveys or electronic health records (EHRs), but very few have linked the two sources to build joint predictive models. In this study, we used survey data on 7,054 patients from the Michigan Genomics Initiative biorepository to evaluate how well self-reported data could be integrated with electronic records for the purpose of modeling COVID-19-related outcomes. We observed that among survey respondents, self-reported COVID-19 diagnosis captured a larger number of cases than the corresponding EHRs, suggesting that self-reported outcomes may be better than EHRs for distinguishing COVID-19 cases from controls. In the modeling context, we compared the utility of survey- and EHR-derived predictor variables in models of survey-reported COVID-19 testing and diagnosis. We found that survey-derived predictors produced uniformly stronger models than EHR-derived predictors-likely due to their specificity, temporal proximity, and breadth-and that combining predictors from both sources offered no consistent improvement compared to using survey-based predictors alone. Our results suggest that, even though general EHRs are useful in predictive models of COVID-19 outcomes, they may not be essential in those models when rich survey data are already available. The two data sources together may offer better prediction for COVID severity, but we did not have enough severe cases in the survey respondents to assess that hypothesis in in our study.

Potential impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria in low-income and middle-income countries: a modelling study.

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 has the potential to cause substantial disruptions to health services, due to cases overburdening the health system or response measures limiting usual programmatic activities. We aimed to quantify the extent to which disruptions to services for HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria in low-income and middle-income countries with high burdens of these diseases could lead to additional loss of life over the next 5 years. METHODS: Assuming a basic reproduction number of 3·0, we constructed four scenarios for possible responses to the COVID-19 pandemic: no action, mitigation for 6 months, suppression for 2 months, or suppression for 1 year. We used established transmission models of HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria to estimate the additional impact on health that could be caused in selected settings, either due to COVID-19 interventions limiting activities, or due to the high demand on the health system due to the COVID-19 pandemic. FINDINGS: In high-burden settings, deaths due to HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria over 5 years could increase by up to 10%, 20%, and 36%, respectively, compared with if there was no COVID-19 pandemic. The greatest impact on HIV was estimated to be from interruption to antiretroviral therapy, which could occur during a period of high health system demand. For tuberculosis, the greatest impact would be from reductions in timely diagnosis and treatment of new cases, which could result from any prolonged period of COVID-19 suppression interventions. The greatest impact on malaria burden could be as a result of interruption of planned net campaigns. These disruptions could lead to a loss of life-years over 5 years that is of the same order of magnitude as the direct impact from COVID-19 in places with a high burden of malaria and large HIV and tuberculosis epidemics. INTERPRETATION: Maintaining the most critical prevention activities and health-care services for HIV, tuberculosis, and malaria could substantially reduce the overall impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. FUNDING: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Wellcome Trust, UK Department for International Development, and Medical Research Council.

Understanding the impact of interruptions to HIV services during the COVID-19 pandemic: A modelling study.

BACKGROUND: There is concern that the COVID-19 pandemic could severely disrupt HIV services in sub-Saharan Africa. However, it is difficult to determine priorities for maintaining different elements of existing HIV services given widespread uncertainty. METHODS: We explore the impact of disruptions on HIV outcomes in South Africa, Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Uganda using a mathematical model, examine how impact is affected by model assumptions, and compare potential HIV deaths to those that may be caused by COVID-19 in the same settings. FINDINGS: The most important determinant of HIV-related mortality is an interruption to antiretroviral treatment (ART) supply. A three-month interruption for 40% of those on ART could cause a similar number of additional deaths as those that might be saved from COVID-19 through social distancing. An interruption for more than 6-90% of individuals on ART for nine months could cause the number of HIV deaths to exceed the number of COVID-19 deaths, depending on the COVID-19 projection. However, if ART supply is maintained, but new treatment, voluntary medical male circumcision, and pre-exposure prophylaxis initiations cease for 3 months and condom use is reduced, increases in HIV deaths would be limited to <2% over five years, although this could still be accompanied by a 7% increase in new HIV infections. INTERPRETATION: HIV deaths could increase substantially during the COVID-19 pandemic under reasonable worst-case assumptions about interruptions to HIV services. It is a priority in high-burden countries to ensure continuity of ART during the pandemic. FUNDING: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Potential effects of disruption to HIV programmes in sub-Saharan Africa caused by COVID-19: results from multiple mathematical models.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic could lead to disruptions to provision of HIV services for people living with HIV and those at risk of acquiring HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, where UNAIDS estimated that more than two-thirds of the approximately 38 million people living with HIV resided in 2018. We aimed to predict the potential effects of such disruptions on HIV-related deaths and new infections in sub-Saharan Africa. METHODS: In this modelling study, we used five well described models of HIV epidemics (Goals, Optima HIV, HIV Synthesis, an Imperial College London model, and Epidemiological MODeling software [EMOD]) to estimate the effect of various potential disruptions to HIV prevention, testing, and treatment services on HIV-related deaths and new infections in sub-Saharan Africa lasting 6 months over 1 year from April 1, 2020. We considered scenarios in which disruptions affected 20%, 50%, and 100% of the population. FINDINGS: A 6-month interruption of supply of antiretroviral therapy (ART) drugs across 50% of the population of people living with HIV who are on treatment would be expected to lead to a 1·63 times (median across models; range 1·39-1·87) increase in HIV-related deaths over a 1-year period compared with no disruption. In sub-Saharan Africa, this increase amounts to a median excess of HIV deaths, across all model estimates, of 296 000 (range 229 023-420 000) if such a high level of disruption occurred. Interruption of ART would increase mother-to-child transmission of HIV by approximately 1·6 times. Although an interruption in the supply of ART drugs would have the largest impact of any potential disruptions, effects of poorer clinical care due to overstretched health facilities, interruptions of supply of other drugs such as co-trimoxazole, and suspension of HIV testing would all have a substantial effect on population-level mortality (up to a 1·06 times increase in HIV-related deaths over a 1-year period due to disruptions affecting 50% of the population compared with no disruption). Interruption to condom supplies and peer education would make populations more susceptible to increases in HIV incidence, although physical distancing measures could lead to reductions in risky sexual behaviour (up to 1·19 times increase in new HIV infections over a 1-year period if 50% of people are affected). INTERPRETATION: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the primary priority for governments, donors, suppliers, and communities should focus on maintaining uninterrupted supply of ART drugs for people with HIV to avoid additional HIV-related deaths. The provision of other HIV prevention measures is also important to prevent any increase in HIV incidence. FUNDING: Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.