Prospective clinical surveillance for severe acute respiratory illness and COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness in Kenyan hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: There are limited data from sub-Saharan Africa describing the demographic characteristics, clinical features and outcome of patients admitted to public hospitals with severe acute respiratory infections during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: We conducted a prospective longitudinal hospital-based sentinel surveillance between May 2020 and December 2022 at 16 public hospitals in Kenya. All patients aged above 18 years admitted to adult medical wards in the participating hospitals were included.

Characteristics of children readmitted with severe pneumonia in Kenyan hospitals.

Background: Pneumonia is a leading cause of childhood morbidity and mortality. Hospital re-admission may signify missed opportunities for care or undiagnosed comorbidities.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective cohort study including children aged 2 months-14 years hospitalised with severe pneumonia between 2013 and 2021 in a network of 20 primary referral hospitals in Kenya.

Clinical epidemiology of COVID-19 among hospitalized children in rural western Kenya.

The epidemiology of pediatric COVID-19 in sub-Saharan Africa and the role of fecal-oral transmission in SARS-CoV-2 are poorly understood. Among children and adolescents in Kenya, we identify correlates of COVID-19 infection, document the clinical outcomes of infection, and evaluate the prevalence and viability of SARS-CoV-2 in stool. We recruited a prospective cohort of hospitalized children aged two months to 15 years in western Kenya between March 1 and June 30 2021.

Improving in-patient neonatal data quality as a pre-requisite for monitoring and improving quality of care at scale: A multisite retrospective cohort study in Kenya.

The objectives of this study were to (1)explore the quality of clinical data generated from hospitals providing in-patient neonatal care participating in a clinical information network (CIN) and whether data improved over time, and if data are adequate, (2)characterise accuracy of prescribing for basic treatments provided to neonatal in-patients over time. This was a retrospective cohort study involving neonates ≤28 days admitted between January 2018 and December 2021 in 20 government hospitals with an interquartile range of annual neonatal inpatient admissions between 550 and 1640 in Kenya. These hospitals participated in routine audit and feedback processes on quality of documentation and care over the study period.

Evaluation of an audit and feedback intervention to reduce gentamicin prescription errors in newborn treatment (ReGENT) in neonatal inpatient care in Kenya: a controlled interrupted time series study protocol.

Background: Medication errors are likely common in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). In neonatal hospital care where the population with severe illness has a high mortality rate, around 14.9% of drug prescriptions have errors in LMICs settings.