The hidden effects of COVID-19 on HIV services in Zanzibar: country report.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major effect on HIV-related healthcare services. Zanzibar has experienced several interruptions of HIV services in the areas of testing and counselling, prevention of mother-to-child transmission of HIV, key population, care and treatment services as well due to the hospital operating at a reduced capacity and the strict visit restrictions with health care allocations to COVID 19 pandemic. The community HIV initiatives, such as index testing and ARVs medicine refills, were used to mitigate the consequences of the epidemic and can be applied in future emergencies.

Assessment of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis patient's skin drug reaction in Zanzibar: A certain causal relationship with Clofazimine.

Drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) is a serious public health of concern. We present the management of multidrug-resistant (MDR)-TB with skin reaction in Zanzibar in a patient who had prior exposure to anti-TB drugs. The reaction developed 4 months later, following MDR-TB treatment, stopped when the drug was withdrawn, and reappeared when reintroduced.

HIV and hepatitis B and C co-infection among people who inject drugs in Zanzibar.

Background: People who inject drugs are at high risk of acquiring hepatitis B (HBV), hepatitis C (HCV), and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) due to risky injection and sexual practices. The objective of this study is to investigate the epidemiology of HIV, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C, and co-infection of these viruses among people who inject drugs in Zanzibar, Tanzania.

Methods: We used respondent-driven sampling to identify 408 participants, from whom we collected demographic data, information on sexual behaviours and injection drug practices, and blood samples for biological testing.

Reproducibility of Respondent-Driven Sampling (RDS) in Repeat Surveys of Men Who have Sex with Men, Unguja, Zanzibar.

To assess the reproducibility of respondent-driven sampling (RDS) in obtaining comparable samples across two survey rounds, we conducted integrated bio-behavioral surveillance surveys (IBBSS) using RDS in 2007 and 2011 among men who have sex with men (MSM) on Unguja island in Zanzibar. Differences in the two rounds were assessed by comparing RDS-adjusted population estimates, stratified estimates, and bottleneck plots. Participants in the 2011 survey round were younger (31.

HIV prevalence and risk behaviors among people who inject drugs in two serial cross-sectional respondent-driven sampling surveys, Zanzibar 2007 and 2012.

People who inject drugs (PWID) are at higher risk of acquiring HIV due to risky injection and sexual practices. We measured HIV prevalence and behaviors related to acquisition and transmission risk at two time points (2007 and 2012) in Zanzibar, Tanzania. We conducted two rounds of behavioral and biological surveillance among PWID using respondent-driven sampling, recruiting 499 and 408 PWID, respectively.

Estimating the number of people who inject drugs, female sex workers, and men who have sex with men, Unguja Island, Zanzibar: results and synthesis of multiple methods.

To determine the number of people who inject drugs (PWID), female sex workers (FSW) and men who have sex with men (MSM) living in Unguja Island, Zanzibar in 2011/2012, we applied several, practical population size estimation methods including literature review, unique object multiplier, recapture from the 2007 survey, wisdom of the crowds and service multiplier. We synthesized findings and presented them to a panel of experts in order to determine plausible estimates for each population. The estimates adopted by a panel of experts as being most plausible were 3,000 for PWID, 3,958 for FSW and 2,157 for MSM.