Community pharmacies: Key players in point-of-care diagnostics for STI screening in Africa.

Background: Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) rank in the top 5 disease categories for which adults in developing countries seek healthcare services. Community pharmacies offer clients convenience, proximity, extended opening hours, privacy, and efficiency, which could make them desirable locations for HIV and STI screening and treatment. We examined the feasibility of using point-of-care (POC) STI tests for screening HIV and other STIs at community pharmacies.

Understanding demographic events and migration patterns in two urban slums of Nairobi City in Kenya.

Understanding the dynamics of movements between different demographic events is essential for informing effective population management strategies. This study aims to characterize the trajectories of demographic and other vital events within the Nairobi Urban Health and Demographic Surveillance System (NUHDSS). Thus, it intends to unravel patterns and trends that can guide the development of targeted policies and interventions to address the population's evolving needs.

Effectiveness of interactive voice response-call for life mHealth tool on adherence to anti-retroviral therapy among young people living with HIV: A randomized trial in Uganda.

Introduction: In people living with HIV, adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) is essential for achieving and sustaining viral suppression and reducing mortality. In young people living with HIV, ART adherence and retention remain a challenge with unsatisfactory viral suppression rates despite facility-based intensive adherence counseling that is the standard of care. Few studies have evaluated mHealth adherence interventions among young people living with HIV in resource-limited settings.

Integrating longitudinal mental health data into a staging database: harnessing DDI-lifecycle and OMOP vocabularies within the INSPIRE Network Datahub.

Background: Longitudinal studies are essential for understanding the progression of mental health disorders over time, but combining data collected through different methods to assess conditions like depression, anxiety, and psychosis presents significant challenges. This study presents a mapping technique allowing for the conversion of diverse longitudinal data into a standardized staging database, leveraging the Data Documentation Initiative (DDI) Lifecycle and the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership (OMOP) Common Data Model (CDM) standards to ensure consistency and compatibility across datasets.

Methods: The "INSPIRE" project integrates longitudinal data from African studies into a staging database using metadata documentation standards structured with a snowflake schema.

Facilitators and barriers to initiating and completing tuberculosis preventive treatment among children and adolescents living with HIV in Uganda: a qualitative study of adolescents, caretakers and health workers.

Introduction: People living with HIV (PLHIV) have a 20-fold risk of tuberculosis (TB) disease compared to HIV-negative people. In 2021, the uptake of TB preventive treatment among the children and adolescents living with HIV at the Baylor-Uganda HIV clinic was 45%, which was below the national target of 90%. Minimal evidence documents the enablers and barriers to TB preventive treatment (TPT) initiation and completion among children and adolescents living with HIV(CALHIV).

Correction: Making Metadata Machine-Readable as the First Step to Providing Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable Population Health Data: Framework Development and Implementation Study.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.2196/56237.].

Telehealth Intervention for Social Behavioral Change Communication Toward Enhanced Partner Conversations on Family Planning Among Men: A Qualitative Analysis of a Pilot Project in Uganda.

Lack of credible sexual partner dialog and support regarding family planning (FP) and other sexual reproductive health issues is a major impediment to contraception service uptake and utilization. This study examined the feasibility and acceptability of attitudes toward using telehealth for remote education of couples through behavioral, motivational, and informational messaging on FP methods and its eventual impact on partner conversations around FP. The study was conducted in Kampala, Uganda, and involved recruiting 450 men from diverse settings.

Making Metadata Machine-Readable as the First Step to Providing Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable Population Health Data: Framework Development and Implementation Study.

Background: Metadata describe and provide context for other data, playing a pivotal role in enabling findability, accessibility, interoperability, and reusability (FAIR) data principles. By providing comprehensive and machine-readable descriptions of digital resources, metadata empower both machines and human users to seamlessly discover, access, integrate, and reuse data or content across diverse platforms and applications. However, the limited accessibility and machine-interpretability of existing metadata for population health data hinder effective data discovery and reuse.

Chronic immune activation and accelerated immune aging among HIV-infected adults receiving suppressive antiretroviral therapy for at least 12 years in an African cohort.

Background: HIV-associated alterations innate and adaptive immune cell compartments are reminiscent of the process of immune aging.

Objectives: We described immune aging phenotypes among ART-treated HIV-infected adults relative to age-matched HIV-negative counterparts.

Methods: In a cross-sectional comparative study of HIV-infected adults with CD4≥500 cells/μl after at least 12 years of suppressive ART and age-and-gender-matched HIV-negative individuals, immune activation and immune aging phenotypes were measured, using multi-color flowcytometry.

A call-to-action: integrate a learning health system framework into longitudinal population studies to improve health response in Africa.

Longitudinal population studies (LPSs) in Africa have the potential to become powerful engines of change by adopting a learning health system (LHS) framework. This is a call-to-action opinion and highlights the importance of integrating an LHS approach into LPSs, emphasizing their transformative potential to improve population health response, drive evidence-based decision making, and enhance community well-being. Operators of LPS platforms, community members, government officials, and funding agencies have a role to contribute to this transformative journey of driving evidence-based interventions, promoting health equity, and fostering long-term public health solutions for African communities.

FAIR-USE4OS: Guidelines for creating impactful open-source software.

This paper extends the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) guidelines to provide criteria for assessing if software conforms to best practices in open source. By adding "USE" (User-Centered, Sustainable, Equitable), software development can adhere to open source best practice by incorporating user-input early on, ensuring front-end designs are accessible to all possible stakeholders, and planning long-term sustainability alongside software design. The FAIR-USE4OS guidelines will allow funders and researchers to more effectively evaluate and plan open-source software projects.

HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis uptake, retention and adherence among female sex workers in sub-Saharan Africa: a systematic review.

Objective: To evaluate oral pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) uptake, retention and adherence among female sex workers (FSWs) receiving care through community and facility delivery models in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA).

Design: Systematic review and meta-analysis.

Data Sources: We searched online databases (PubMed, MEDLINE, SCOPUS, EMBASE, Google Scholar, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews and Web of Science) between January 2012 and 3 April 2022.

Perspectives of female sex workers on HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis delivery in Uganda: A qualitative study.

Background: HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is underutilized by cisgender female sex workers (FSW) despite its proven effectiveness. This study aimed to understand the experiences of FSW with PrEP services in Uganda to inform HIV programming for this key population.

Methods: We conducted qualitative interviews with 19 FSW between June and July 2022 at the Most at Risk Populations Initiative clinic, Mulago Hospital, Kampala, to explore experiences with accessing PrEP Indepth interviews explored: (1) descriptions of where and how PrEP was obtained; (2) perspectives on current approaches for accessing PrEP; and (3) individual encounters with PrEP services.

INSPIRE datahub: a pan-African integrated suite of services for harmonising longitudinal population health data using OHDSI tools.

Introduction: Population health data integration remains a critical challenge in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC), hindering the generation of actionable insights to inform policy and decision-making. This paper proposes a pan-African, Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable (FAIR) research architecture and infrastructure named the INSPIRE datahub. This cloud-based Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) and on-premises setup aims to enhance the discovery, integration, and analysis of clinical, population-based surveys, and other health data sources.

Public Attitudes Towards Access to Health Data for Research Purposes Through Citizens' Jury in Uganda.

Citizens juries (CJ) are a method of deliberative action research that have been utilized in countries with well-funded health care systems to address questions about access to health data. Uganda is classified as a low-income country and utilizes a predominantly paper-based health record system. The burgeoning electronic health record in the central area represents an opportunity to collect and analyze longitudinal data on patients living with long term HIV infection and multiple diseases, a hitherto unexplored disease mapping exercise We set out to understand the public perception towards the use of data for research purposes such as this among Ugandans utilizing an adapted strategy sensitive to the local culture.

Associations of inter-annual rainfall decreases with subsequent HIV outcomes for persons with HIV on antiretroviral therapy in Southern Africa: a collaborative analysis of cohort studies.

Background: Periods of droughts can lead to decreased food security, and altered behaviours, potentially affecting outcomes on antiretroviral therapy (ART) among persons with HIV (PWH). We investigated whether decreased rainfall is associated with adverse outcomes among PWH on ART in Southern Africa.

Methods: Data were combined from 11 clinical cohorts of PWH in Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, participating in the International epidemiology Databases to Evaluate AIDS Southern Africa (IeDEA-SA) collaboration.

Relating CYP2B6 genotype and efavirenz resistance among post-partum women living with HIV with high viremia in Uganda: a nested cross-sectional study.

Background: We investigated the association between CYP2B6 polymorphisms and efavirenz drug resistance among women living with HIV who started on antiretroviral therapy during pregnancy and with high viremia during post-partum.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of women with viral loads greater than 1000 copies/ml who were at least 6 weeks postpartum. Sanger sequencing was used to detect resistant mutations, as well as host genotyping, and efavirenz resistance was compared among the metabolizer genotypes.

Community purchases of antimicrobials during the COVID-19 pandemic in Uganda: An increased risk for antimicrobial resistance.

Self-Medication (SM) involves the utilization of medicines to treat self-recognized symptoms or diseases without consultation and the irrational use of over-the-counter drugs. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the lack of definitive treatment led to increased SM. We aimed to estimate the extent of SM for drugs used to treat COVID-19 symptoms by collecting data from pharmacy sale records.

Adaptations to HIV services delivery amidst the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in Kampala, Uganda: A qualitative study.

The enforcement of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic restrictions disrupted health services delivery and currently, there is a limited understanding regarding measures employed by health facilities to ensure delivery of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) services amidst the interruptions. We, therefore, designed a qualitative study to explore the measures for continuity of HIV services during the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions in Kampala, Uganda. This study was conducted at six large primary health care facilities in the Kampala Metropolitan area.

Adherence monitoring methods to measure virological failure in people living with HIV on long-term antiretroviral therapy in Uganda.

Appointment keeping and self-report within 7-day or and 30-days recall periods are non-objective measures of antiretroviral treatment (ART) adherence. We assessed incidence of virological failure (VF), predictive performance and associations of these adherence measures with VF among adults on long-term ART. Data for persons initiated on ART between April 2004 and April 2005, enrolled in a long-term ART cohort at 10-years on ART (baseline) and followed until December 2021 was analyzed.

Increased uptake of tuberculosis preventive therapy (TPT) among people living with HIV following the 100-days accelerated campaign: A retrospective review of routinely collected data at six urban public health facilities in Uganda.

Tuberculosis preventive therapy (TPT) effectively decreases rates of developing active tuberculosis disease in people living with HIV (PLHIV) who are at increased risk. The Uganda Ministry of Health launched a 100-day campaign to scale-up TPT in PLHIV in July 2019. We sought to examine the effect of the campaign on trends of TPT uptake and characteristics associated with TPT uptake and completion among persons in HIV care.

Stigma mastery in people living with HIV: gender similarities and theory.

Aims: This study aimed to determine the prevalence of, factors associated with, and to build a theoretical framework for understanding Internalsed HIV-related Stigma Mastery (IHSM).

Methods: A cross-sectional study nested within a 2014 Stigma Reduction Cohort in Uganda was used. The PLHIV Stigma Index version 2008, was used to collect data from a random sample of 666 people living with HIV (PLHIV) stratified by gender and age.