What is the prevalence of COVID-19 detection by PCR among deceased individuals in Lusaka, Zambia? A postmortem surveillance study.

Objectives: To determine the prevalence of COVID-19 postmortem setting in Lusaka, Zambia.

Design: A systematic, postmortem prevalence study.

Setting: A busy, inner-city morgue in Lusaka.

Infant deaths from respiratory syncytial virus in Lusaka, Zambia from the ZPRIME study: a 3-year, systematic, post-mortem surveillance project.

Background: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is the leading cause of acute lower respiratory tract infections and a key driver of childhood mortality. Previous RSV burden of disease estimates used hospital-based surveillance data and modelled, rather than directly measured, community deaths. Given this uncertainty, we conducted a 3-year post-mortem prevalence study among young infants at a busy morgue in Lusaka, Zambia-the Zambia Pertussis RSV Infant Mortality Estimation (ZPRIME) study.