Housing, Sanitation and Living Conditions Affecting SARS-CoV-2 Prevention Interventions in 54 African Countries

We acknowledge funding from the UK Research and Innovation Global Challenge Research Fund (GCRF) (Grant Ref: ES/ T010487/1), the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Elisabeth Blackwell Institute for Health Research and the Beatriu de Pinós fellowship programme.The feasibility of non-pharmacological interventions (NPIs) such as physical distancing or isolation at home to prevent Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) transmission in low-resource countries is unknown. Household survey data from 54 African countries were used to investigate the feasibility of SARS-CoV-2 NPIs in low-resource settings. Across the 54 countries, approximately 718 million people lived in households with ≥6 individuals at home (median percentage of at-risk households 56% (95% confidence interval (CI), 51% to 60%)). Approximately 283 million people lived in households where ≥3 people slept in a single room (median percentage of at-risk households 15% (95% CI, 13% to 19%)). An estimated 890 million Africans lack on-site water (71% (95% CI, 62% to 80%)), while 700 million people lacked in-home soap/washing facilities (56% (95% CI, 42% to 73%)). The median percentage of people without a refrigerator in the home was 79% (95% CI, 67% to 88%), while 45% (95% CI, 39% to 52%) shared toilet facilites with other households. Individuals in low-resource settings have substantial obstacles to implementing NPIs for mitigating SARSCoV-2 transmission. These populations urgently need to be prioritized for COVID-19 vaccination to prevent disease and to contain the global pandemic

A New Approach to the Direct Measurement of Consensual Poverty

The direct consensual method of poverty measurement developed by Mack and Lansley (1985) in their study Poor Britain has been one of the most important contributions to modern poverty research. There are nevertheless several problems with Mack and Lansley's methodology, a number of which are discussed in this paper. An alternative method for measuring direct consensual poverty is proposed and it is argued that the method improves on the approach of Mack and Lansley in the following ways: it is less sensitive to the coverage of the initial list of consumption items on which the direct consensual measurement of poverty is based; it avoids some of the arbitrary decisions made by Mack and Lansley; it increases the sensitivity between the measurement of poverty and the preferences revealed by public opinion; and, at the same time, it decreases the sensitivity to particular individuals' preferences. An empirical comparison of Mack and Lansley's original approach and the proposed alternative method is conducted using a Swedish data set from 1992. This shows that both methods, apart from some minor differences, generate a high degree of consistency in the results. One important conclusion is therefore that Mack and Lansley's approach appears to produce robust and reliable results