Publications by authors named "G Maphalala"
Performance of a stool-based quantitative PCR assay for the diagnosis of tuberculosis in adolescents and adults: a multinational, prospective diagnostic accuracy study.
Lancet Microbe
May 2024
Background: Despite increasing availability of rapid molecular tests for the diagnosis of tuberculosis in high-burden settings, many people with tuberculosis are undiagnosed. Reliance on sputum as the primary specimen for tuberculosis diagnostics contributes to this diagnostic gap. We evaluated the diagnostic accuracy and additive yield of a novel stool quantitative PCR (qPCR) assay for the diagnosis of tuberculosis in three countries in Africa with high tuberculosis burdens.
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- PEPFAR supports diagnostic networks for HIV and tuberculosis in low and middle-income countries, which were leveraged for SARS-CoV-2 testing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
- From April 2020 to March 2021, 27 countries reported on the use of these networks, with a focus on 46 key indicators for COVID-19 response activities.
- Overall, participating labs contributed to over 3.4 million SARS-CoV-2 tests, demonstrating the effectiveness of PEPFAR resources in emergency health responses.
Article Synopsis
- Despite a deworming program initiated in 2000, the intestinal parasitic infection (IPI) rate among primary schoolchildren in Eswatini remained high at 40.5% in a 2010 study, with notable differences between provinces (28.8% in Manzini and 58.3% in Lubombo).
- Protozoa were the most common pathogens, making up 20.6% of infections, while helminths had a very low infection rate of just 1.6%.
- Factors such as poor personal hygiene and unsafe water sources were significant risk factors, highlighting the need for enhanced treatments and interventions by the Eswatini Health Authority to better address persistent IPI issues among children.
Introduction: Incentives conditional on school attendance or on remaining free of sexually transmitted infections have produced mixed results in reducing HIV incidence.
Methods: HIV-negative adolescent girls and young women aged 15-22%-50% of whom were out of school-were recruited from 293 clusters in Eswatini from urban (30%) and rural areas (70%).Financial incentives conditional on education attendance were randomly allocated at the cluster level.