Publications by authors named "Ian Sanne"

Background: Developing countries experience limited access to HCV laboratory tests for different reasons. Providing near to real-time HCV testing and results especially to at-risk populations including those in rural settings for timely initiation to treatment is key. Within a rural Myanmar setting, we compared HCV diagnostic detection and quantification of the GeneXpert, and Advanced Biological Laboratories UltraGene-HCV assays against the gold standard and reference method Roche real-time HCV in Myanmar.

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Background: In 2021, the HIV prevalence among South African adults was 18% and more than 2 million people had uncontrolled HIV and, therefore, had increased risk of poor outcomes with SARS-CoV-2 infection. We investigated trends in COVID-19 admissions and factors associated with in-hospital COVID-19 mortality among people living with HIV and people without HIV.

Methods: In this analysis of national surveillance data, we linked and analysed data collected between March 5, 2020, and May 28, 2022, from the DATCOV South African national COVID-19 hospital surveillance system, the SARS-CoV-2 case line list, and the Electronic Vaccination Data System.

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The Sisonke 2 study provided a homologous boost at least 6 months after administration of the priming dose of Ad26.COV2.S for healthcare workers enrolled on the Sisonke phase 3b implementation study.

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Objective: To assess the rates of vascular thrombotic adverse events in the first 35 days after one dose of the Ad26.COV2.S vaccine (Janssen/Johnson & Johnson) in healthcare workers in South Africa and to compare these rates with those observed in the general population.

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Background And Aim: To demonstrate the use of a standard dose of ledipasvir (LDV) and sofosbuvir (SOF), with or without ribavirin, to treat hepatitis C and hepatitis C/HIV co-infection in Ukraine.

Methods: Eligible HCV viraemic adults from two clinics in Kyiv were treated with LDV/SOF with or without weight-based ribavirin for 12 weeks. Clinical assessments were performed at screening and at week 24, and as needed; treatment was dispensed every 4 weeks.

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Introduction: The Pan-African Consortium for the Evaluation of Anti-Tuberculosis Antibiotics (PanACEA) was designed to build tuberculosis (TB) trial capacity whilst conducting clinical trials on novel and existing agents to shorten and simplify TB treatment. PanACEA has now established a dynamic network of 11 sub-Saharan clinical trial sites and four European research institutions.

Objectives: In 2011, a capacity development program, funded by the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP), was launched with four objectives, aiming at strengthening collaborating TB research sites to reach the ultimate goal of becoming self-sustainable institutions: networking; training; conducting clinical trials; and infrastructure scaling-up of sites.

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Article Synopsis
  • This study analyzed COVID-19 admission rates and mortality during the Omicron BA.4/BA.5 wave compared to previous waves like Delta and Omicron BA.1/BA.2 in South Africa.
  • The case fatality ratios (CFRs) were found to decrease from 25.9% in the Delta wave to 8.2% in the Omicron BA.4/BA.5 wave, indicating lower mortality risk with the latter variant.
  • Factors such as vaccination status and prior infection significantly lowered mortality risk, with protection increasing with more vaccine doses received.
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Introduction: Voluntary medical male circumcision (VMMC) remains an effective biomedical intervention for HIV prevention in high HIV prevalence countries. In South Africa, United States Agency for International Development VMMC partners provide technical assistance to the Department of Health, at national and provincial levels in support of the establishment of VMMC sites as well as in providing direct VMMC services at site level since April 2012. We describe the outcomes of the Right to Care (RTC) VMMC program implemented in South Africa from 2012 to 2017.

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Background: Tuberculosis (TB) Trials Consortium Study 31/AIDS Clinical Trials Group A5349, an international randomized open-label phase 3 noninferiority trial showed that a 4-month daily regimen substituting rifapentine for rifampin and moxifloxacin for ethambutol had noninferior efficacy and was safe for the treatment of drug-susceptible pulmonary TB (DS-PTB) compared with the standard 6-month regimen. We explored results among the prespecified subgroup of people with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) (PWH).

Methods: PWH and CD4+ counts ≥100 cells/μL were eligible if they were receiving or about to initiate efavirenz-based antiretroviral therapy (ART).

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HIV treatment programs face challenges in identifying patients at risk for loss-to-follow-up and uncontrolled viremia. We applied predictive machine learning algorithms to anonymised, patient-level HIV programmatic data from two districts in South Africa, 2016-2018. We developed patient risk scores for two outcomes: (1) visit attendance ≤ 28 days of the next scheduled clinic visit and (2) suppression of the next HIV viral load (VL).

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Background: Real-world evaluation of the safety profile of vaccines after licensure is crucial to accurately characterise safety beyond clinical trials, support continued use, and thereby improve public confidence. The Sisonke study aimed to assess the safety and effectiveness of the Janssen Ad26.COV2.

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Growing evidence shows that a significant number of patients with COVID-19 experience persistent symptoms, also known as long COVID-19. We sought to identify persistent symptoms of COVID-19 in frontline workers at Right to Care South Africa, who are past the acute phase of illness, using a cross-sectional survey. We analysed data from 207 eligible COVID-19 positive frontline workers who participated in a two-month post-COVID-19 online self-administered survey.

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Background: We aimed to assess the effectiveness of a single dose of the Ad26.COV2.S vaccine (Johnson & Johnson) in health-care workers in South Africa during two waves of the South African COVID-19 epidemic.

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Achieving global elimination of hepatitis C virus requires a substantial scale-up of testing. Point-of-care HCV viral load assays are available as an alternative to laboratory-based assays to promote access in hard to reach or marginalized populations. The diagnostic performance and lower limit of detection are important attributes of these new assays for both diagnosis and test of cure.

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Introduction: The International AIDS Society convened a multidisciplinary committee of experts in December 2020 to provide guidance and key considerations for the safe and ethical management of clinical trials involving people living with HIV (PLWH) during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. This consultation did not discuss guidance for the design of prevention studies for people at risk of HIV acquisition, nor for the programmatic delivery of antiretroviral therapy (ART).

Discussion: There is strong ambition to continue with HIV research from both PLWH and the research community despite the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.

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In late December 2019, pneumonia cases of unknown origin were reported in Wuhan, China. This virus was named SARS-CoV2 and the clinical syndrome was named coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19). South Africa, despite strict and early lockdown has the highest infection rate in Africa.

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Background: The Janssen-Ad26.COV2.S vaccine is authorized for use in several countries, with more than 30 million doses administered.

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In this case report, we described a 48-year-old human immunodeficiency virus-negative man with pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) who had an incidental finding of concurrent chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. We highlighted the importance of considering other differential diagnoses when patients present with TB or haematological malignancies. We also discussed the difficulties in diagnosis when both of these conditions co-exist and how this affected treatment and management.

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Background: Serology testing is an important ancillary diagnostic to the reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). We aimed to evaluate the performance of the Roche Elecsys™ chemiluminescent immunoassay (Rotkreuz, Switzerland), that detects antibodies against the SARS-CoV-2 nucleocapsid antigen, at an academic laboratory in South Africa.

Methods: Serum samples were collected from 312 donors with confirmed positive SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR tests, with approval from a large university's human research ethics committee.

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Serology or antibody tests for COVID-19 are designed to detect antibodies (mainly Immunoglobulin M (IgM) and Immunoglobulin G (IgG) produced in response to Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS CoV-2) infection. In this study, 30 lateral flow immunoassays were tested using serum or plasma from patients with confirmed SARS CoV-2 infection. Negative serological controls were accessed from a well-characterised bank of sera which were stored prior to February 2020.

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Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome-Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been identified as the causative agent for causing the clinical syndrome of COVID -19. Accurate detection of SARS-CoV-2 infection is not only important for management of infected individuals but also to break the chain of transmission. South Africa is the current epicenter of SARS-CoV-2 infection in Africa.

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Background: Rifapentine-based regimens have potent antimycobacterial activity that may allow for a shorter course in patients with drug-susceptible pulmonary tuberculosis.

Methods: In an open-label, phase 3, randomized, controlled trial involving persons with newly diagnosed pulmonary tuberculosis from 13 countries, we compared two 4-month rifapentine-based regimens with a standard 6-month regimen consisting of rifampin, isoniazid, pyrazinamide, and ethambutol (control) using a noninferiority margin of 6.6 percentage points.

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: The severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic has swept the world and poses a significant global threat to lives and livelihoods, with 115 million confirmed cases and at least 2.5 million deaths from Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the first year of the pandemic. Developing tools to measure seroprevalence and understand protective immunity to SARS-CoV-2 is a priority.

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Background: Facility-based, multimonth dispensing of antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV could reduce burdens on patients and providers and improve retention in care. We assessed whether 6-monthly ART dispensing was non-inferior to standard of care and 3-monthly ART dispensing.

Methods: We did a pragmatic, cluster-randomised, unblinded, non-inferiority trial (INTERVAL) at 30 health facilities in Malawi and Zambia.

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