8 research outputs found
The evolving SARS-CoV-2 epidemic in Africa: Insights from rapidly expanding genomic surveillance
INTRODUCTION
Investment in Africa over the past year with regard to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) sequencing has led to a massive increase in the number of sequences, which, to date, exceeds 100,000 sequences generated to track the pandemic on the continent. These sequences have profoundly affected how public health officials in Africa have navigated the COVID-19 pandemic.
RATIONALE
We demonstrate how the first 100,000 SARS-CoV-2 sequences from Africa have helped monitor the epidemic on the continent, how genomic surveillance expanded over the course of the pandemic, and how we adapted our sequencing methods to deal with an evolving virus. Finally, we also examine how viral lineages have spread across the continent in a phylogeographic framework to gain insights into the underlying temporal and spatial transmission dynamics for several variants of concern (VOCs).
RESULTS
Our results indicate that the number of countries in Africa that can sequence the virus within their own borders is growing and that this is coupled with a shorter turnaround time from the time of sampling to sequence submission. Ongoing evolution necessitated the continual updating of primer sets, and, as a result, eight primer sets were designed in tandem with viral evolution and used to ensure effective sequencing of the virus. The pandemic unfolded through multiple waves of infection that were each driven by distinct genetic lineages, with B.1-like ancestral strains associated with the first pandemic wave of infections in 2020. Successive waves on the continent were fueled by different VOCs, with Alpha and Beta cocirculating in distinct spatial patterns during the second wave and Delta and Omicron affecting the whole continent during the third and fourth waves, respectively. Phylogeographic reconstruction points toward distinct differences in viral importation and exportation patterns associated with the Alpha, Beta, Delta, and Omicron variants and subvariants, when considering both Africa versus the rest of the world and viral dissemination within the continent. Our epidemiological and phylogenetic inferences therefore underscore the heterogeneous nature of the pandemic on the continent and highlight key insights and challenges, for instance, recognizing the limitations of low testing proportions. We also highlight the early warning capacity that genomic surveillance in Africa has had for the rest of the world with the detection of new lineages and variants, the most recent being the characterization of various Omicron subvariants.
CONCLUSION
Sustained investment for diagnostics and genomic surveillance in Africa is needed as the virus continues to evolve. This is important not only to help combat SARS-CoV-2 on the continent but also because it can be used as a platform to help address the many emerging and reemerging infectious disease threats in Africa. In particular, capacity building for local sequencing within countries or within the continent should be prioritized because this is generally associated with shorter turnaround times, providing the most benefit to local public health authorities tasked with pandemic response and mitigation and allowing for the fastest reaction to localized outbreaks. These investments are crucial for pandemic preparedness and response and will serve the health of the continent well into the 21st century
B. Luutu Mukasa
Location: MontserradoRuntime: 0:43:38Hearing Type: Institutional and Thematic Hearings on ReparationCategorized as pertaining to Diaspora, Hearings.The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Liberi
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Knowledge for developent: university-firm interaction in sub-Saharan Africa: the case of Uganda: working papers
AugustThe Research on Knowledge Systems (RoKS) 2006 competition provided funding that has opened up a new field and delineated the contours of a research agenda in relation to the changing role of the university in sub-Saharan Africa. Governments in developing countries are increasingly imitating developed countries, by adopting policy, incentives and programmes aimed to promote linkages between universities and firms. In sub-Saharan Africa, with the largest number of low-income countries, there is evidence to suggest that policy-borrowing to promote university-industry linkages is occurring, but in a manner that does not take sufficient cognizance of the specifics of the local context and conditions, which may have unintended deleterious consequences. There is as yet not a great deal of research on the changing role of universities, but what does exist often engages with the challenges in aspirational and normative ways. There has been little systematic analysis of the conditions of universities, firms and their potential for interaction to contribute to growth and development in the low income countries of sub-Saharan Africa. Such concerns inspired a study to examine systematically how university-firm interaction contributes to national development goals in three countries at different stages of development in sub-Saharan Africa, namely Nigeria, Uganda and South Africa. The study was also conducted in nine other countries, in Latin America (Brazil, Costa Rica, Argentina and Mexico) and Asia (Korea, China, India, Malaysia and Thailand), providing a basis for systematic comparative work across countries of the South
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Knowledge for development: university-firm interaction in sub-Saharan Africa: the case of Nigeria: working papers
AugustThe Research on Knowledge Systems (RoKS) 2006 competition provided funding that has opened up a new field and delineated the contours of a research agenda in relation to the changing role of the university in sub-Saharan Africa. Governments in developing countries are increasingly imitating developed countries, by adopting policy, incentives and programmes aimed to promote linkages between universities and firms. In sub-Saharan Africa, with the largest number of low-income countries, there is evidence to suggest that policy-borrowing to promote university-industry linkages is occurring, but in a manner that does not take sufficient cognizance of the specifics of the local context and conditions, which may have unintended deleterious consequences. There is as yet not a great deal of research on the changing role of universities, but what does exist often engages with the challenges in aspirational and normative ways. There has been little systematic analysis of the conditions of universities, firms and their potential for interaction to contribute to growth and development in the low income countries of sub-Saharan Africa.
Such concerns inspired a study to examine systematically how university-firm interaction contributes to national development goals in three countries at different stages of development in sub-Saharan Africa, namely Nigeria, Uganda and South Africa. The study was also conducted in nine other countries, in Latin America (Brazil, Costa Rica, Argentina and Mexico) and Asia (Korea, China, India, Malaysia and Thailand), providing a basis for systematic comparative work across countries of the South