Using a priority setting exercise to identify priorities for guidelines on newborn and child health in South Africa, Malawi, and Nigeria.

BACKGROUND: Sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the highest under-five mortality rate globally. Child healthcare decisions should be based on rigorously developed evidence-informed guidelines. The Global Evidence, Local Adaptation (GELA) project is enhancing capacity to use global research to develop locally relevant guidelines for newborn and child health in South Africa (SA), Malawi, and Nigeria. The first step in this process was to identify national priorities for newborn and child health guideline development, and this paper describes our approach. METHODS: We followed a good practice method for priority setting, including stakeholder engagement, online priority setting surveys and consensus meetings, conducted separately in South Africa, Malawi and Nigeria. We established national Steering Groups (SG), comprising 10-13 members representing government, academia, and other stakeholders, identified through existing contacts and references, who helped prioritise initial topics identified by research teams and oversaw the process. Various stakeholders were consulted via online surveys to rate the importance of topics, with results informing consensus meetings with SGs where final priority topics were agreed. RESULTS: Based on survey results, nine, 10 and 11 topics were identified in SA, Malawi, and Nigeria respectively, which informed consensus meetings. Through voting and discussion within meetings, and further engagement after the meetings, the top three priority topics were identified in each country. In SA, the topics concerned anemia prevention in infants and young children and post-discharge support for caregivers of preterm and LBW babies. In Malawi, they focused on enteral nutrition in critically ill children, diagnosis of childhood cancers in the community, and caring for neonates. In Nigeria, the topics focused on identifying pre-eclampsia in the community, hand hygiene compliance to prevent infections, and enteral nutrition for LBW and preterm infants. CONCLUSIONS: Through dynamic and iterative stakeholder engagement, we identified three priority topics for guideline development on newborn and child health in SA, Malawi and Nigeria. Topics were specific to contexts, with no overlap, which highlights the importance of contextualised priority setting as well as of the relationships with key decisionmakers who help define the priorities.

Newborn and child health national and provincial clinical practice guidelines in South Africa, Nigeria and Malawi: a scoping review.

BACKGROUND: Low and middle-income countries remain disproportionately affected by high rates of child mortality. Clinical practice guidelines are essential clinical tools supporting implementation of effective, safe, and cost-effective healthcare. High-quality evidence-based guidelines play a key role in improving clinical management to impact child mortality. We aimed to identify and assess the quality of guidelines for newborn and child health published in South Africa, Nigeria and Malawi in the last 5 years (2017-2022). METHODS: We searched relevant websites (June-July 2022), for publicly available national and subnational de novo or adapted guidelines, addressing newborn and child health in the three countries. Pairs of reviewers independently extracted information from eligible guidelines (scope, topic, target population and users, responsible developers, stakeholder consultation process, adaptation description, assessment of evidence certainty). We appraised guideline quality using the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research & Evaluation (AGREE II) instrument. RESULTS: We identified 40-guidelines from the three countries. Of these, 8/40 reported being adopted from a parent guideline. More guidelines (n = 19) provided guidance on communicable diseases than on non-communicable diseases (n = 8). Guidelines were most often developed by national health ministries (n = 30) and professional societies (n = 14). Eighteen guidelines reported on stakeholder consultation; with Nigeria (10/11) and Malawi (3/6) faring better than South Africa (5/23) in reporting this activity. The Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluations (GRADE) approach was used in 1/7 guidelines that reported assessing certainty of evidence. Overall guidelines scored well on two AGREE II domains: scope and purpose median (IQR) score 68% (IQR 47-83), and clarity of presentation 81% (67-94). Domains critical for ensuring credible guidance scored below 20%: rigour of development 11% (4-32) and editorial independence 6% (0-27). CONCLUSION: National ministries and professional societies drive guideline activities in Malawi, Nigeria and South Arica. However, the methods and reporting do not adhere to global standards. We found low AGREE II scores for rigour of guideline development and editorial independence and limited use of GRADE or adaptation methods. This undermines the credibility of available guidelines to support evidence-informed care. Our findings highlight the importance of ongoing efforts to strengthen partnerships, capacity, and support for guideline development.

Effectiveness of the BNT162b2 vaccine in preventing morbidity and mortality associated with COVID-19 in children aged 5 to 11 years: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

A rapid systematic review, based on Cochrane rapid review methodology was conducted to assess the effectiveness of two 10µg doses of BNT162b2 vaccine in preventing morbidity and mortality associated with COVID-19 in children aged 5 to 11 years. We searched the Cochrane Library COVID-19 study register, the COVID-NMA living review database and the McMaster University Living Evidence Synthesis for pre-appraised trials and observational studies up to 7 December 2022. Records were screened independently in duplicate. Where appraisal was not available, these were done in duplicate. Meta-analysis was conducted using RevMan 5.3 presenting risk ratios/odds ratios/inverse vaccine efficacy with 95% confidence intervals (CI). GRADE for assessing the overall certainty of the evidence was done in Gradepro. We screened 403 records and assessed 52 full-text articles for eligibility. One randomised controlled trial (RCT) and 24 observational studies were included. The RCT reported that BNT162b2 was likely safe and 91% efficacious, RR 0.09 (95% CI 0.03 to 0.32) against incident COVID-19 infection (moderate certainty evidence). In absolute terms, this is 19 fewer cases per 1,000 vaccines delivered (ranging from 15 to 21 fewer cases). Observational studies reported vaccine effectiveness (VE) against incident COVID-19 infection of 65% (OR 0.35, 95% CI 0.26 to 0.47) and 76% against hospitalisation (OR 0.24, 95% CI 0.13 to 0.42) (moderate certainty evidence). The absolute effect is 167 fewer cases per 1,000 vaccines given (ranging from 130 fewer to 196 fewer cases) and 4 fewer hospitalisations per 10,000 children (from 3 fewer to 5 fewer hospitalisations). Adverse events following vaccination with BNT162b2 were mild or moderate and transient. The evidence demonstrated a reduction in incident COVID-19 cases and small absolute reduction in hospitalisation if a two-dose BNT162b2 vaccine regimen is offered to children aged 5 to 11 years, compared to placebo. PROSPERO registration: CRD42021286710.

Human Papillomavirus Vaccination in South Africa: Programmatic Challenges and Opportunities for Integration With Other Adolescent Health Services?

Compared to other regions of the world, sub-Saharan Africa has made limited progress in the implementation and performance of nationwide human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination programmes. Without urgent intervention, this will serve to undermine cervical cancer elimination efforts in this region. The primary intent of this narrative review is to highlight the programmatic successes and challenges of the school-based HPV vaccination programme in South Africa since its inception in 2014, with the aim of contributing to the evidence base needed to accelerate implementation and improve programme performance in other sub-Saharan African countries. As of 2020, the proportion of adolescent girls aged 15 years who had received at least one dose of the HPV vaccine at any time between ages 9-14 years was 75%, while 61% had completed the full recommended two-dose schedule. This gives some indication of the reach of the South African HPV vaccination programme over the past 6 years. Despite this, vaccine coverage and dose completion rates have persistently followed a downward trend, slowing progress toward attaining global elimination targets. There is evidence suggesting that declining public demand for the HPV vaccine may be a result of weakening social mobilization over time, inadequate reminder and tracking systems, and vaccine hesitancy. Another concern is the disproportionate burden of HPV and HIV co-infections among adolescent girls and young women in South Africa, which predisposes them to early development of invasive cervical cancer. Moving forward, national policy makers and implementers will have to explore reforms to current age eligibility criteria and vaccine dose schedules, as well as implement strategies to support vaccine uptake among populations like out-of-school girls, girls attending private schools, and HIV positive young women. Additional opportunities to strengthen the South African HPV vaccination programme can be achieved by scaling up the co-delivery of other adolescent health services such as comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights education, deworming, and health screening. This calls for reinforcing implementation of the integrated school health policy and leveraging existing adolescent health programmes and initiatives in South Africa. Ultimately, establishing tailored, adolescent-centered, integrated health programmes will require guidance from further operational research.

Descriptive analysis of routine childhood immunisation timeliness in the Western Cape, South Africa.

Adherence to recommended age-specific immunisation schedules is critical in ensuring vaccine effectiveness against vaccine preventable diseases (VPDs). There is limited data on immunisation timeliness in sub-Saharan Africa. Therefore, this study assessed the timeliness of age-specific routine childhood immunisation within the Western Cape Province of South Africa. Participant records (N = 709) from a prospective health-facility based study conducted in Cape Town, SA in 2012-2016 were analysed. The outcome measure was receiving age-specific immunisations ≥4 weeks of that recommended for age as per the South African Expanded Programme on Immunisation (EPI-SA) schedule. Proportions, medians, inter-quartile ranges (IQR) and regression were used to obtain the prevalence, time-at-risk, and risk factors for delayed immunisation. A total of 652 /709 (91.9%) participants were eligible. Immunisation coverage declined with age from 94.9% (95% CI 92.9-96.4) at birth to 72.0% (95% CI 65.7-77.6) at 18 months. The highest delay in the uptake of vaccine doses was observed among the 3 rd dose of the DTP vaccine [163 (34.6% (95% CI 30.3-39.1)], while the lowest was seen among BCG [40 (6.5% (95% CI 4.7-8.8)]. The longest median time-at-risk of VPDs was among the 2 nd dose of the measles vaccine [12.9 (IQR 6.7-38.6) weeks] and the lowest was OPV birth dose [IQR 6.3 (5.3-9.1) weeks]. Low and upper-middle socio-economic quartiles were associated with delayed uptake of vaccine doses. Delayed vaccination increases the time of susceptibility to VPDs during infancy and childhood. There is a need to develop strategies aimed at mitigating factors associated with delay in uptake of routine childhood vaccines in the Western Cape. Mitigation strategies should provide vaccine education and mobile reminder systems. Education about timely vaccine uptake will aid in the provision of informed council from healthcare providers to caregivers. Multiple reminder systems could cater for low network coverage areas and caregivers with busy schedules.

Comment on Hosseini et al. Effects of Vitamin D Supplementation on COVID-19 Related Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Nutrients 2022, 14, 2134.

Medicines have been re-purposed as therapeutics for COVID-19 and it is with great interest that we read the publication entitled, "Effects of Vitamin D Supplementation on COVID-19 Related Outcomes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis" [...].