Coronavirus host genetics South Africa (COHG-SA) database—a variant database for gene regions associated with SARS-CoV-2 outcomes

The SARS-CoV-2 virus is responsible for the COVID-19 global public health emergency, and the disease it causes is highly variable in its clinical presentation. Clinical phenotypes are heterogeneous both in terms of presentation of symptoms in the host and response to therapy. Several studies and initiatives have been established to analyse and review host genetic epidemiology associated with COVID-19. Our research group curated these articles into a web-based database using the python applicationserver framework Django. The database provides a searchable research tool describing current literature surrounding COVID-19 host genetic factors associated with disease outcome. This paper describes the COHG-SA database and provides an overview of the analyses that can be derived from these data.The South African Medical Research Council through its Division of Research Capacity Development under the SAMRC Internship Scholarship Programme from funding received from the South African National Treasury; the CIDRI-Africa Wellcome Trust grant; the NIH H3ABioNET award; the UKRI/MRC and the University of Pretoria through the Institute for Cellular and Molecular Medicine.https://www.nature.com/ejhgam2023BiochemistryGeneticsImmunologyMicrobiology and Plant Patholog

Social media and COVID-19 – perceptions and public deceptions regarding colchicine, hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin and resultant lessons for future pandemics

Background: The capacity for social media to influence the consumption of re-purposed medicines to manage COVID-19 despite limited safety and efficacy data at the start of the pandemic is cause for concern. Objective: To ascertain links between social media reports and utilization for three re-purposed medicines (hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), ivermectin and colchicine) to direct future activities. Methods: A combined retrospective analysis of social media posts for these re-purposed medicines was performed in South Africa between January and June 2021 together with utilization and clinical trials data. Utilisation data from IQVIA from three different platforms included private and public markets. Clinical trials data was obtained from various databases. Chloroquine data was analysed in South Africa (HCQ was not available). Results: 77257 posts were collected across key social media platforms during the study period of which 6884 were relevant. Ivermectin had the highest number of posts (55%) followed by HCQ (44%), with limited posts for colchicine (1%). The spike in ivermectin utilisation was closely correlated with social media posts. Similarly, with chloroquine social media interest was enhanced by comments from local politicians. Sentiment analysis showed that the posts regarding the effectiveness of particularly ivermectin and HCQ were positive. Of concern is that the origin of the majority of reporters in social media (85%) was unidentifiable. Conclusion: This is the first study of its kind in South Africa providing evidence that social media is a driver of re-purposed medicine use. Healthcare professionals have a key role to provide evidence-based advice especially with unidentifiable posts

Social media and COVID-19 – perceptions and public deceptions of ivermectin, colchicine and hydroxychloroquine : lessons for future pandemics

The capacity for social media to influence the utilization of re-purposed medicines to manage COVID-19, despite limited availability of safety and efficacy data, is a cause for concern within health care systems. This study sought to ascertain links between social media reports and utili-zation for three re-purposed medicines: hydroxychloroquine (HCQ), ivermectin and colchicine. A combined retrospective analysis of social media posts for these three re-purposed medicines was undertaken, along with utilization and clinical trials data, in South Africa, between January 2020 and June 2021. In total, 77,257 posts were collected across key social media platforms, of which 6884 were relevant. Ivermectin had the highest number of posts (55%) followed by HCQ (44%). The spike in ivermectin use was closely correlated to social media posts. Similarly, regarding chlo-roquine (as HCQ is not available in South Africa), social media interest was enhanced by local politicians. Sentiment analysis revealed that posts regarding the effectiveness of these repurposed medicines were positive. This was different for colchicine, which contributed only a small number of mentions (1%). Of concern is that the majority of reporters in social media (85%) were uniden-tifiable. This study provides evidence of social media as a driver of re-purposed medicines. Healthcare professionals have a key role in providing evidence-based advice especially with unidentifiable post