Baseline assessment of pharmacovigilance activities in four sub-Saharan African countries: a perspective on tuberculosis.

Background: New medicines have become available for the treatment of drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) and are introduced in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) by the national TB programs (NTPs) through special access schemes. Pharmacovigilance is typically the task of national medicines regulatory agencies (NMRAs), but the active drug safety monitoring and management (aDSM) recommended for the new TB medicines and regimens was introduced through the NTPs. We assessed the strengths and challenges of pharmacovigilance systems in Eswatini, Ethiopia, Nigeria and Tanzania, focusing on their capacity to monitor safety of medicines registered and not registered by the NMRAs for the treatment of DR-TB.

Prevalence and risk factors for obesity among elderly patients living with HIV/AIDS in a low-resource setting.

Obesity is associated with detrimental changes in cardiovascular and metabolic parameters, including blood pressure, dyslipidemia, markers of systemic inflammation, and insulin resistance. In the elderly living with the human immunodeficiency virus (EPLHIV), and being treated with antiretroviral medications, the obesity complications escalate and expose the elderly to the risk of noncommunicable diseases. Given that over 3 million EPLHIV in sub-Sahara Africa, we assessed the prevalence of obesity and its associated factors among EPLHIV in a low-resource setting.

Cohort profile: the Nigerian HIV geriatric cohort study.

Background: The Nigerian HIV Geriatric Cohort (NHGC) is a longitudinal cohort setup to learn how elderly people living with HIV (EPLHIV) in Nigeria fare, despite not being prioritized by the national treatment program, and to deepen knowledge for their differentiated care and achieve better outcomes. In this paper, we describe data collected on sociodemographic and clinical data from EPLHIV from the inception of Nigeria's national HIV program to 2018.

Methods: Patient-level data spanning the period 2004 to 2018, obtained from comprehensive HIV treatment hospitals, that are supported by four major PEPFAR-implementing partners in Nigeria were used.

Prevalence of hypertension among patients aged 50 and older living with human immunodeficiency virus.

Background: Hypertension is one of the common medical conditions observed among patients aged 50 years and elder living with HIV (EPLWH) and to date no systematic review has estimated its global prevalence.

Purpose: To conduct a systematic review to estimate the global prevalence of hypertension among EPLWH.

Data Sources: PubMed/MEDLINE, Embase, the Cochrane Library, and Global Health databases for relevant publications up till May 25, 2018.

Addressing the under-reporting of adverse drug reactions in public health programs controlling HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria: A prospective cohort study.

Background: Adverse Drug Reactions (ADRs) are a major clinical and public health problem world-wide. The prompt reporting of suspected ADRs to regulatory authorities to activate drug safety surveillance and regulation appears to be the most pragmatic measure for addressing the problem. This paper evaluated a pharmacovigilance (PV) training model that was designed to improve the reporting of ADRs in public health programs treating the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), Tuberculosis (TB) and Malaria.

Integrating community pharmacy into community based anti-retroviral therapy program: A pilot implementation in Abuja, Nigeria.

Background: The landscape of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) epidemic control is shifting with the United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) 90-90-90 benchmarks for epidemic control. Community-based Antiretroviral Therapy (CART) models have improved treatment uptake and demonstrated good clinical outcomes. We assessed the feasibility of integrating community pharmacy as a task shift structure for differentiated community ART in Abuja-Nigeria.

Procurement and Supply Management System for MDR-TB in Nigeria: Are the Early Warning Targets for Drug Stock Outs and Over Stock of Drugs Being Achieved?

Background: The World Health Organisation (WHO) introduced the twelve early warning indicators for monitoring and evaluating drug Procurement and Supply management (PSM) systems, intended to prevent drug stock-outs and overstocking. Nigeria--one of the high Multi Drug Resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB) burden countries, scaled-up treatment in 2012 with the concurrent implementation of a PSM system.

Method: We evaluated how well this system functioned using the WHO indicators, including all seven MDR-TB treatment centres in the country that were functional throughout 2013.

Doing no harm? Adverse events in a nation-wide cohort of patients with multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in Nigeria.

Background: Adverse events (AEs) of second line anti-tuberculosis drugs (SLDs) are relatively well documented. However, the actual burden has rarely been described in detail in programmatic settings. We investigated the occurrence of these events in the national cohort of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) patients in Nigeria.

Adherence to Anti-Retroviral Therapy in North Central Nigeria.

Background: Nigeria bears nearly 10% of the global burden of HIV/AIDS. Most of the AIDS patients dwell in the part of Nigeria known as the "North Central" geopolitical region. Sustaining HIV patients in this high risk region is critical for the overall success of the ART program in Nigeria.