Contractor selection, monitoring and performance of road infrastructure projects in Uganda synergies between policy and law

Abstract: The article highlights the powerful influence of contractor selection in improving road project performance in Uganda. It provides empirical evidence of the performance of road projects as a less studied phenomenon because in Uganda, most public works are delivered with longer delays, contracts are more often awarded to larger suppliers and a higher share of the payment is postponed after delivery. Use of poor-quality materials, poor scheduling, delayed procurement, and poor contractor selection causes cost and time overruns on roads. The study adopts a cross sectional design in terms of quantitative and qualitative approaches to collect data. A multivariate analysis and surveys were taken from 190 respondents. It was found that contractor monitoring has a significant positive effect on the completion of roads while contractor selection has a direct and indirect positive effect on performance of roads through the partial mediation of contractor selection. This suggests that contractor selection has an effect on the improvement of the level of road projects performance in Uganda. There is a need to improve the scrutiny of the contractor selection process in road agencies in Uganda. This will require a good review of the government policy on contractor selection aimed at making it more robust and efficient

Outbreak of Marburg hemorrhagic fever among miners in Kamwenge and Ibanda Districts, Uganda, 2007

Marburg hemorrhagic fever was detected among 4 miners in Ibanda District, Uganda, from June through September, 2007. Infection was likely acquired through exposure to bats or bat secretions in a mine in Kamwenge District, Uganda, and possibly human-to-human transmission between some patients. We describe the epidemiologic investigation and the health education response

Arbovirus circulation, epidemiology and spatiotemporal distribution in Uganda

BackgroundArboviruses are endemic in Uganda; however, little is known about their epidemiology, seasonality, and spatiotemporal distribution. This study sought to provide information on arbovirus outbreaks from acute clinical presentations.MethodsA retrospective analysis of IgM and confirmatory Plaque Reduction Neutralization Test (PRNT)and results for arbovirus diagnosis of samples collected from 2016 to 2019 was carried out. Demographic data were used to determine the epidemiology and spatiotemporal distribution of arboviruses using the SaTScan and SPSS software.ResultsArbovirus activity peaked consistently during March-May rainy seasons. The overall arbovirus seroprevalence was 9·5% (137/1441). Of the 137 IgM positives, 72 (52·6%) were confirmed by PRNT, of which the central region (53/72; 73·6%) and YFV (20/72; 27·8%) had the highest prevalence. The 5-14 age group were four times more likely to be infected with an arbovirus p=0·003, 4·1 (1·3- 12·3 CI). Significant arboviral activity was observed among indoor (p=0·003) and outdoor (p=0·05) patients. Spatiotemporal analysis indicated arboviral activity in 23 districts with five distinct clusters in 6 districts. Masaka, in the Central region, was the most affected among the districts, with a significant YFV cluster (p˂0·001) from March to May 2016.InterpretationThis study shows that arbovirus activity peak during the March-May rainy season and highlights the need for YFV mass vaccination to reduce the clinical burden of arboviruses transmitted within the region

The impact of viral mutations on recognition by SARS-CoV-2 specific T cells.

We identify amino acid variants within dominant SARS-CoV-2 T cell epitopes by interrogating global sequence data. Several variants within nucleocapsid and ORF3a epitopes have arisen independently in multiple lineages and result in loss of recognition by epitope-specific T cells assessed by IFN-γ and cytotoxic killing assays. Complete loss of T cell responsiveness was seen due to Q213K in the A∗01:01-restricted CD8+ ORF3a epitope FTSDYYQLY207-215; due to P13L, P13S, and P13T in the B∗27:05-restricted CD8+ nucleocapsid epitope QRNAPRITF9-17; and due to T362I and P365S in the A∗03:01/A∗11:01-restricted CD8+ nucleocapsid epitope KTFPPTEPK361-369. CD8+ T cell lines unable to recognize variant epitopes have diverse T cell receptor repertoires. These data demonstrate the potential for T cell evasion and highlight the need for ongoing surveillance for variants capable of escaping T cell as well as humoral immunity.This work is supported by the UK Medical Research Council (MRC); Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences(CAMS) Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences (CIFMS), China; National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, and UK Researchand Innovation (UKRI)/NIHR through the UK Coro-navirus Immunology Consortium (UK-CIC). Sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 samples and collation of data wasundertaken by the COG-UK CONSORTIUM. COG-UK is supported by funding from the Medical ResearchCouncil (MRC) part of UK Research & Innovation (UKRI),the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR),and Genome Research Limited, operating as the Wellcome Sanger Institute. T.I.d.S. is supported by a Well-come Trust Intermediate Clinical Fellowship (110058/Z/15/Z). L.T. is supported by the Wellcome Trust(grant number 205228/Z/16/Z) and by theUniversity of Liverpool Centre for Excellence in Infectious DiseaseResearch (CEIDR). S.D. is funded by an NIHR GlobalResearch Professorship (NIHR300791). L.T. and S.C.M.are also supported by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration Medical Countermeasures Initiative contract75F40120C00085 and the National Institute for Health Research Health Protection Research Unit (HPRU) inEmerging and Zoonotic Infections (NIHR200907) at University of Liverpool inpartnership with Public HealthEngland (PHE), in collaboration with Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and the University of Oxford.L.T. is based at the University of Liverpool. M.D.P. is funded by the NIHR Sheffield Biomedical ResearchCentre (BRC – IS-BRC-1215-20017). ISARIC4C is supported by the MRC (grant no MC_PC_19059). J.C.K.is a Wellcome Investigator (WT204969/Z/16/Z) and supported by NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centreand CIFMS. The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NIHR or MRC

The terrain of urbanisation process and policy frameworks: A critical analysis of the Kampala experience

Kampala is urbanising in an unplanned manner, but without a clear picture of the underlying dynamics. The city is characterised by lack of proper zoning of economic activities and construction of physical infrastructure without regard to subsequent spatial quality and environmental conservation. Consequently, there are sharp differences in residential standards where expensive housing and luxury flats co-exist with shanty towns and informal settlements, with about 60% of the city’s population living in unplanned informal settlements and often faced with challenges of unemployment. The unprecedented increase in the urban population in Kampala and the prospects for further increases in the near future have economic and social implications concerning employment, housing, education and health, among others. Understanding the nature of the dynamics of the growth or decline of cities like Kampala helps planners to support the processes that lead to harmonious urban development and to deal with the negative consequences of urban growth. This paper reflects the urbanisation dynamics explaining Kampala’s urbanisation process with the view to analysing the implications for an alternative urban policy framework. It argues that the conditions that have allowed the situation to exist have serious policy implications which require the need for an integrated policy framework that can be used to effectively prevent or halt Kampala’s unplanned urbanisation while promoting planned urbanisation. Induced by the migration and lack of information, understanding urban dynamics is crucial to the development of urban policies that can effectively ensure that further urban changes occur in a systematic and satisfactory manner. The current urban process in developing countries like Uganda is associated with poverty, environmental degradation and population demands that outstrip service capacity

Recurrent SARS-CoV-2 mutations in immunodeficient patients

Long-term severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections in immunodeficient patients are an important source of variation for the virus but are understudied. Many case studies have been published which describe one or a small number of long-term infected individuals but no study has combined these sequences into a cohesive dataset. This work aims to rectify this and study the genomics of this patient group through a combination of literature searches as well as identifying new case series directly from the COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) dataset. The spike gene receptor-binding domain and N-terminal domain (NTD) were identified as mutation hotspots. Numerous mutations associated with variants of concern were observed to emerge recurrently. Additionally a mutation in the envelope gene, T30I was determined to be the second most frequent recurrently occurring mutation arising in persistent infections. A high proportion of recurrent mutations in immunodeficient individuals are associated with ACE2 affinity, immune escape, or viral packaging optimisation.There is an apparent selective pressure for mutations that aid cell–cell transmission within the host or persistence which are often different from mutations that aid inter-host transmission, although the fact that multiple recurrent de novo mutations are considered defining for variants of concern strongly indicates that this potential source of novel variants should not be discounted. © The Author(s) 2022. Published by Oxford University Press