Frank Tanser

Frank Tanser
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Frank verified their affiliation via an institutional email.
Verified
Frank verified their affiliation via an institutional email.
  • BSc (Hons) MSc PhD MSc FRGS
  • Managing Director at Stellenbosch University

About

461
Publications
149,963
Reads
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37,018
Citations
Introduction
Current institution
Stellenbosch University
Current position
  • Managing Director
Additional affiliations
October 2013 - present
University of KwaZulu-Natal
Position
  • Research Director, Epidemiology and Population Studies

Publications

Publications (461)
Article
Full-text available
Background: In the context of a severe generalized African HIV epidemic, the value of geographically targeted prevention interventions has only recently been given serious consideration. However, to date no study has performed a population-based analysis of the micro-geographical clustering of HIV incident infections, limiting the evidential suppo...
Article
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Background: South Africa is at the epicentre of the HIV pandemic, with the world's highest number of new infections and the largest treatment programme. Using metrics proposed by the Joint United Nations Programme on AIDS (UNAIDS), we evaluate progress toward epidemic control and highlight areas for intervention in a hyperendemic South African sett...
Article
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Purpose of review: The ANRS 12249 treatment as prevention (TasP) trial investigated the impact of a universal test and treat (UTT) approach on reducing HIV incidence in one of the regions of the world most severely affected by the HIV epidemic-KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. We summarize key findings from this trial as well as recent findings from co...
Article
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Previously, we demonstrated that high coverage of piped water in the seven years preceding a parasitological survey was strongly predictive of Schistosomiasis haematobium infection in a nested cohort of 1,976 primary school children [1]. Here, we report on the prospective follow up of infected members of this nested cohort (N=333) for two successiv...
Article
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Significance HIV incidence has recently been in decline across some of the most intense epidemics in sub-Saharan Africa due to the scale-up of prevention and transmission-blocking treatments. Understanding whether declines in incidence are being felt equally across age and gender can help prioritize demographic groups where more effort is needed to...
Article
Full-text available
Introduction Human mobility is associated with an increased risk of HIV acquisition and disengagement from HIV care, leading to poorer health outcomes among highly mobile individuals compared to less mobile individuals. Mobile individuals, broadly defined as those who temporally, seasonally, or permanently move from one place to another for volunta...
Preprint
BACKGROUND Smartphones offer a convenient and precise method for studying human mobility at an unprecedented scale, allowing researchers to explore the links between mobility and HIV risk and poor treatment outcomes. However, leveraging smartphone technology to study HIV risk in rural settings presents unique challenges and opportunities. OBJECTIV...
Chapter
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This chapter introduces a method for combining the use of multiple software packages and open-source datasets to identify unusual clusters of high disease rates and explore the socioeconomic and environmental characteristics of physical landscapes that may explain high rates. The software discussed in this chapter includes SaTScan (a free epidemiol...
Article
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Linkage to HIV care remains suboptimal among men. We investigated the effectiveness of a male-targeted HIV-specific decision support app, Empowering People through Informed Choices for HIV (EPIC-HIV), on increasing linkage to HIV care among men in rural South Africa. Home-Based Intervention to Test and Start (HITS) was a multi-component cluster-ran...
Article
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Background We sought to improve the current understanding of how climate change impacts women’s reproductive health in sub-Saharan Africa. Objectives We investigated the relationship between maternal heat exposure and miscarriage (pregnancy ending before 20 weeks gestation) in a South African setting. Design Population-based cohort study. Method...
Article
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Tuberculin skin test surveys in primary school children can be used to quantify Mycobacterium tuberculosis transmission at community level. KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa, is home to 11.5 million people and suffers a burden of tuberculosis disease that is among the highest in the world. The last tuberculin survey in the province was undertake...
Article
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Men in sub-Saharan Africa are less likely to accept HIV testing and link to HIV care than women. We conducted a trial to investigate the impact of conditional financial incentives and a decision support application, called EPIC-HIV, on HIV testing and linkage to care. We report the findings of the trial process evaluation to explore whether the int...
Article
OBJECTIVE To identify individual-level early warning indicators of virologic failure in HIV patients receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) in South Africa. DESIGN A matched case–control study of individuals with and without virologic failure (VF) (>5 months on ART and HIV-1 plasma viral load >1,000 copies/mL) was conducted between June 2014 and J...
Article
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South Africa rolled out dolutegravir (DTG) as first-line antiretroviral therapy (ART) in December 2019 to overcome high rates of pretreatment non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor drug resistance. In the context of transition to DTG-based ART, this study spatiotemporally analysed detectable HIV viral loads (VLs) prior to- and following DTG...
Article
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Introduction In South Africa, the HIV care cascade remains suboptimal. We investigated the impact of small conditional financial incentives (CFIs) and male‐targeted HIV‐specific decision‐support application (EPIC‐HIV) on the HIV care cascade. Methods In 2018, in uMkhanyakude district, 45 communities were randomly assigned to one of four arms: (i)...
Article
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Despite expanded antiretroviral therapy (ART) in South Africa, HIV-1 transmission persists. Integrase strand transfer inhibitors (INSTI) and long-acting injectables offer potential for superior viral suppression, but pre-existing drug resistance could threaten their effectiveness. In a community-based study in rural KwaZulu-Natal, prior to widespre...
Preprint
Introduction: Linkage to HIV care remains suboptimal among men. We investigated the effectiveness of a male-targeted HIV-specific decision support app, Empowering People through Informed Choices for HIV (EPIC-HIV), on increasing linkage to HIV care among men in rural South Africa. Methods: Home-Based Intervention to Test and Start (HITS) was a mult...
Preprint
Introduction HIV elimination requires innovative approaches to ensure testing and immediate treatment provision. We investigated the effectiveness of conditional financial incentives on increasing linkage to HIV care in a 2×2 factorial cluster randomized controlled trial-Home-Based Intervention to Test and Start (HITS) - in rural South Africa. Met...
Article
Full-text available
Summary Background Underweight and obesity are associated with adverse health outcomes throughout the life course. We estimated the individual and combined prevalence of underweight or thinness and obesity, and their changes, from 1990 to 2022 for adults and school-aged children and adolescents in 200 countries and territories. Methods We used data...
Article
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Introduction: As people living with HIV (PLHIV) are experiencing longer survival, the co-occurrence of HIV and non-communicable diseases has become a public health priority. In response to this emerging challenge, we aimed to characterise the spatial structure of convergence of chronic health conditions in an HIV hyperendemic community in KwaZulu-N...
Article
Full-text available
Background Periods of droughts can lead to decreased food security, and altered behaviours, potentially affecting outcomes on antiretroviral therapy (ART) among persons with HIV (PWH). We investigated whether decreased rainfall is associated with adverse outcomes among PWH on ART in Southern Africa. Methods Data were combined from 11 clinical coho...
Article
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Ambulance data offer novel insight into the mental health impacts of the pandemic in rural areas, which are typically underrepresented in health service use data. This research involved a retrospective observational study of all records of patients experiencing mental health emergencies attended by ambulances in the East Midlands of the United King...
Article
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Introduction Fishing populations constitute a suitable key population amongst which to conduct HIV prevention trials due to very high HIV prevalence and incidence, however, these are highly mobile populations. We determined the feasibility and acceptability of using fingerprinting and geographical positioning systems to describe mobility patterns a...
Article
Background In the last decade, universally available antiretroviral therapy (ART) has led to greatly improved health and survival of people living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa, but new infections continue to appear. The design of effective prevention strategies requires the demographic characterisation of individuals acting as sources of infectio...
Preprint
Full-text available
Despite the scale-up of antiretroviral therapy (ART) in South Africa, HIV-1 incidence remains high. The anticipated use of potent integrase strand transfer inhibitors and long-acting injectables aims to enhance viral suppression at the population level and diminish transmission. Nevertheless, pre-existing drug resistance could impede the efficacy o...
Article
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Background: Early infant diagnosis (EID) for HIV-exposed infants is essential due to high mortality during the first months of their lives. In Conakry (Guinea), timely EID is difficult as traffic congestion prevents the rapid transport of blood samples to the central laboratory. We investigated the cost-effectiveness of transporting EID blood sampl...
Article
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Background Most COVID-19 vulnerability indices rely on measures that are biased by rates of exposure or are retrospective like mortality rates that offer little opportunity for intervention. The Moore-Hill Vulnerability Index (MHVI) is a precision public health early warning alternative to traditional infection fatality rates that presents avenues...
Article
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Valid screening and diagnostic algorithms are needed to achieve 2030 targets proposed by the WHO’s Global Diabetes Compact. We explored anthropometric thresholds to optimally screen and refer individuals for diabetes testing in rural South Africa. We evaluated screening thresholds for waist circumference (WC), body mass index (BMI), and waist-hip r...
Article
Full-text available
Introduction Several low-and middle-income countries are undergoing rapid epidemiological transition with a rising burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). South Africa (SA) is a country with one of the largest HIV epidemics worldwide and a growing burden of NCDs where the collision of these epidemics poses a major public health challenge. Meth...
Article
Full-text available
Background: The convergence of infectious diseases and non-communicable diseases in South Africa is challenging to health systems. In this analysis, we assessed the multimorbidity health needs of individuals and communities in rural KwaZulu-Natal and established a framework to quantify met and unmet health needs for individuals living with infecti...
Article
Introduction: While it is widely acknowledged that family relationships can influence health outcomes, their impact on the uptake of individual health interventions is unclear. In this study, we quantified how the efficacy of a randomized health intervention is shaped by its pattern of distribution in the family network. Methods: The "Home-Based...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background: Early infant diagnosis (EID) for HIV-exposed infants is essential due to high mortality during the first months of their lives. In Conakry (Guinea) timely EID is difficult as traffic congestion prevents the rapid transport of blood samples to the central laboratory. We investigated the cost-effectiveness of transporting EID blood sample...
Article
Background: Self-report of sensitive sexual behaviors is often inaccurate and subject to social desirability bias. List experiment is an alternative survey method to mitigate biases. The objective of this study was to estimate the rate of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) among older adults in urban Tanzania using the list experiment and to c...
Article
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Background WHO guidelines recommend abacavir in first-line antiretroviral treatment for children and neonates. However, there is no approved dose <3 months of age, and data in neonates are limited. Methods We included infants who initiated ART aged <3 months, between 2006 and 2019, in nine South African cohorts. In those who received abacavir or z...
Article
Full-text available
Optimal growth and development in childhood and adolescence is crucial for lifelong health and well-being1–6 . Here we used data from 2,325 population-based studies, with measurements of height and weight from 71 million participants, to report the height and body-mass index (BMI) of children and adolescents aged 5–19 years on the basis of rural an...
Article
South Africa is faced with a high HIV and STI prevalence and incidence, respectively, with pockets of high burden areas driving these diseases. Localised monitoring of the HIV epidemic and STI endemic would enable more effective targeted prevention strategies. We assessed spatial variations in curable STI incidence among a cohort of women enrolled...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background: As people living with HIV (PLHIV) are experiencing longer survival, the co-occurrence of HIV and non-communicable diseases has become a public health priority. In response to this emerging challenge, we aimed to characterize the spatial structure of convergence of chronic health conditions in a HIV hyperendemic community in KwaZulu-Nata...
Preprint
Full-text available
The convergence of infectious and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in South Africa poses a challenge to health systems. Here we establish a framework to quantify met and unmet health needs for individuals living with infectious and NCDs. In this study, we screened adult residents >15 years of age within the uMkhanyakude district in KwaZulu- Natal,...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background Several low- and middle-income countries are undergoing a rapid epidemiological transition with a rising burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). South Africa (SA) is a country with one of the largest HIV epidemics worldwide and a growing burden of NCDs where the collision of these epidemics poses a major public health challenge. Met...
Article
Clean water and sanitation provisions are essential for good hygiene and health, with rural South Africa facing a simultaneous access crisis of both, the direct health effect of restricted access to both on mental health remaining scarce and largely overlooked. This study investigated the association between access to clean water and sanitation on...
Article
Full-text available
In this article, we focus on the reimbursement process, and as an example, characterize the time to reimbursement of pembrolizumab , a PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitor for treatment of metastatic NSCLC from publicly available websites, in three different healthcare systems: The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in the UK, the...
Article
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Introduction Interruptions in treatment pose risks for people with HIV (PWH) and threaten progress in ending the HIV epidemic; however, the COVID‐19 pandemic's impact on HIV service delivery across diverse settings is not broadly documented. Methods From September 2020 to March 2021, the International epidemiology Databases to Evaluate AIDS (IeDEA...
Article
Background Home delivery and monitoring of antiretroviral therapy (ART) is convenient, overcomes logistical barriers, and could increase individual ART adherence and viral suppression. With client payment and sufficient health benefits, this strategy could be scalable. The aim of the Deliver Health Study was to test the acceptability and efficacy o...
Article
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Background There is an alarming trend in sub-Saharan Africa in the use of codeine-containing pharmaceuticals, but its risk of common comorbidities, such as mental health, remains unquantified at a national-level. We investigated the relationship between codeine use and onset of depression in South Africa at a population-level. Methods We used nati...
Article
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The scaling up of antiretroviral therapy services over the past decades has led to a remarkable reduction in HIV infections and HIV-related deaths in South Africa (SA). While this is a step in the right direction, it brings a new public health challenge into focus, namely psychological challenges associated with such chronic and often stigmatising...
Article
Full-text available
Smartphones with Global Positioning System (GPS) apps offer simple and accurate tools to collect data on human mobility. However, their associated ethical challenges remain to be assessed. We used the Emanuel framework to assess the ethical concerns of using smartphone GPS to record mobility patterns of young adults in rural South Africa for a larg...
Article
Full-text available
In sub-Saharan Africa, home-based HIV testing interventions are designed to reach sub-populations with low access to HIV testing such as men, younger or less educated people. Combining these interventions with conditional financial incentives (CFI) has been shown to be effective to increase testing uptake. CFI are effective for one-off health behav...
Technical Report
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COVID-19 infections are over-represented in ethnic minority groups and other deprived communities while low uptake levels for COVID-19 vaccines are observed in the same groups. The uptake of a vaccine depends not only on its perceived safety and effectiveness profile but also on how well vaccination policies are communicated by policy makers and su...
Article
Full-text available
Globally, South Africa hosts the highest number of people living with HIV (PLHIV) and the unique legacy of internal labour migration continues to be a major driver of the regional epidemic, interrupting treatment-as-prevention efforts. The study examined levels, trends, and predictors of migration in rural KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa, usin...
Article
Full-text available
The widespread psychological effects of contagion mitigation measures associated with the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) are well known. Phases of "lockdown" have increased levels of anxiety and depression globally. Most research uses methods such as self-reporting that highlight the greater impact of the pandemic on the mental health of...
Article
Full-text available
Background: The reason why Black and South Asian healthcare workers are at a higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection remain unclear. We aim to quantify risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection among ethnic minority healthcare staff and elucidate pathways of infection. Methods: A one-year-follow-up retrospective cohort study has been conducted among NHS employees...
Article
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Due to the high HIV incidence among the general population of Eswatini, pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV-exposed individuals is recommended. However, little is known about PrEP uptake and preferences in PrEP delivery healthcare setting among the general population. We conducted a secondary analysis of a randomized trial that aimed to increas...
Article
Full-text available
Climate change is directly and indirectly linked to human health, including through access to treatment and care. Our systematic review presents a systems understanding of the nexus between drought and antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence in HIV-positive individuals in the African setting. Narrative synthesis of 111 studies retrieved from Web of...
Article
Full-text available
Understanding spatial configuration of sexual network structure is critical for effective use of HIV preventative interventions in a community. However, this has never been described at the population level for any setting in sub-Saharan Africa. We constructed the comprehensive geospatial sexual network among new heterosexual partnerships in rural...
Article
Full-text available
Background Antiretroviral therapy (ART) through universal test and treat (UTT) and HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) substantially reduces HIV-related mortality, morbidity and incidence. Effective individual-level prevention modalities have not translated into population-level impact in southern Africa due to sub-optimal coverage among adolescent...
Article
Full-text available
The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and associated mitigation strategies such as “lockdown” are having widespread adverse psychological effects, including increased levels of anxiety and depression. Most research using self-reported data highlights the pandemic’s impact on the psychological well-being of females, whereas data for...
Article
Full-text available
In this study, we hypothesize that HIV geographical clusters (geospatial areas with significantly higher numbers of HIV positive individuals) can behave as the highly connected nodes in the transmission network. Using data come from one of the most comprehensive demographic surveillance systems in Africa, we found that more than 70% of the HIV tran...
Article
Objective: To evaluate the characteristics and outcomes of HIV-infected children that have care interruptions, during which the child's health status and use of medication is unknown. Design: We included data on children initiating ART between 2004 and 2016 at <16 years old at 16 International Epidemiologic Databases to Evaluate AIDS Southern Af...
Article
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Background: Accurate HIV risk assessment can guide optimal HIV prevention. We evaluated the performance of risk prediction models incorporating geospatial measures. Methods: We developed and validated HIV risk prediction models in a population-based cohort in South Africa. Individual-level covariates included demographic and sexual behavior meas...
Article
Full-text available
Background Over the last 30 years, South Africa has experienced four ‘colliding epidemics’ of HIV and tuberculosis, chronic illness and mental health, injury and violence, and maternal, neonatal, and child mortality, which have had substantial effects on health and well-being. Using data from the 2019 Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries and Risk Fa...
Article
Full-text available
Introduction Older adolescents aged 15–19 years continue to have high rates of loss to follow up (LTFU), and high rates of virologic non-suppression (VNS) compared to younger adolescents and adults. Adolescent females are at risk of pregnancy, which puts those living with HIV at a dual vulnerability. Our study assessed the factors associated with V...
Article
Full-text available
Objective To identify spatial clusters with unusually high levels of MDR‐TB, which are highly unlikely to have arisen by chance in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa. Methods Home addresses of all MDR‐TB patients were collected from four MDR‐TB facilities from 2013 to 2016. We mapped all addresses, linking them to the nearest ward with population e...
Article
Robins (1998) introduced marginal structural models, a general class of counterfactual models for the joint effects of time-varying treatments in complex longitudinal studies subject to time-varying confounding. Robins (1998) established the identification of marginal structural model parameters under a sequential randomization assumption, which ru...
Preprint
Full-text available
Globally, South Africa ranks worst for people living with HIV (PLHIV) and the unique legacy of internal labour migration continues to be a major driver of the regional epidemic, interrupting treatment-as-prevention efforts. The study examined levels, trends, and predictors of migration in rural KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa, using population...
Preprint
Full-text available
Black and South Asian healthcare workers have been found at higher risk of SARS-CoV-2 infection in the United Kingdom. However, many studies do not consider all potential confounders (e.g., professional exposure, living environment) and those conducted during the second wave of the COVID-19 outbreak remain scarce. Using 1-year-folow-up data from a...
Article
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Urban environments have been evolving to mitigate threats to the health and wellbeing of societies for thousands of years, including establishing open spaces to combat bubonic plague, improving waste management in the 20th century, and more recently retrofitting urban landscapes with green space to promote physical exercise. In the context of the c...
Article
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Complex interactions between physical landscapes and social factors increase vulnerability to emerging infections and their sequelae. Relative vulnerability to severe illness and/or death (VSID) depends on risk and extent of exposure to a virus and underlying health susceptibility. Identifying vulnerable communities and the regions they inhabit in...
Article
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Background Hypertension can be detected at the primary health-care level and low-cost treatments can effectively control hypertension. We aimed to measure the prevalence of hypertension and progress in its detection, treatment, and control from 1990 to 2019 for 200 countries and territories. Methods We used data from 1990 to 2019 on people aged 30...
Article
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Background The most immediate response of the research community to COVID-19 has been a focus on understanding the effects, treatment and prevention of infection. Of equal and ongoing importance is elucidating the impact of mitigation measures, such as lockdown, on the well-being of societies. Research about mental health and lockdown in the UK has...
Article
Full-text available
Background: South Africa implemented universal test and treat (UTT) in September 2016 in an effort to encourage earlier initiation of antiretroviral therapy (ART). Methods: We therefore conducted an interrupted time series (ITS) analysis to assess the impact of UTT on mean CD4 count at ART initiation among adults ≥16 years old attending 17 publi...
Article
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We use a regression discontinuity design to estimate the causal effect of antiretroviral therapy (ART) eligibility according to national treatment guidelines of South Africa on two risk factors for cardiovascular disease, body mass index (BMI) and blood pressure. We combine survey data collected in 2010 in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, with clinical...
Article
Full-text available
Background There has been remarkable progress in the treatment of HIV throughout sub-Saharan Africa, but there are few data on the prevalence and overlap of other significant causes of disease in HIV endemic populations. Our aim was to identify the prevalence and overlap of infectious and non-communicable diseases in such a population in rural Sout...
Article
Full-text available
BACKGROUND: There has been remarkable progress in the treatment of HIV throughout sub-Saharan Africa, but there are few data on the prevalence and overlap of other significant causes of disease in HIV endemic populations. Our aim was to identify the prevalence and overlap of infectious and non-communicable diseases in such a population in rural Sou...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background: The most immediate response of the research community to COVID-19 has been a focus on understanding the effects, treatment and prevention of infection. Of equal and ongoing importance is elucidating the impact of mitigation measures, such as lockdown, on the wellbeing of societies. Research about mental health and lockdown in the UK has...
Article
Full-text available
The role of geographical disparities of health-related risk factors with anemia are poorly documented for women of reproductive age in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). We aimed to determine the contribution of potential factors and to identify areas at higher risk of anemia for women in reproductive age in SSA. Our study population comprised 27 nationally...
Article
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Background High-resolution estimates of HIV burden across space and time provide an important tool for tracking and monitoring the progress of prevention and control efforts and assist with improving the precision and efficiency of targeting efforts. We aimed to assess HIV incidence and HIV mortality for all second-level administrative units across...
Data
This is a supplementary material for the article entitled "Measuring universal health coverage based on an index of effective coverage of health services in 204 countries and territories, 1990–2019"
Preprint
Full-text available
The progression of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in Africa has so far been heterogeneous and the full impact is not yet well understood. Here, we describe the genomic epidemiology using a dataset of 8746 genomes from 33 African countries and two overseas territories. We show that the epidemics in most countries were initiated by importations, predominant...
Article
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Objective: With ever-expanding antiretroviral therapy (ART) access amongst pregnant women in sub-Saharan Africa, it is more than ever important to address the gap in knowledge around ART effectiveness, as measured by HIV viral load (VL), and pregnancy loss. Design: A population-based cohort study. Methods: The study sample consisted of 3431 pr...
Article
Full-text available
Introduction Despite progress towards the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS 95-95-95 targets, South Africa is still suffering from one of the largest HIV epidemics globally. In this study, we generated high-resolution HIV prevalence maps and identified people living with HIV (PLHIV) in underserved areas to provide essential information for...
Article
Background: while the HIV epidemic remains a considerable challenge in sub-Saharan Africa, a dramatic reduction in the associated mortality has led to a fundamental shift in the public health priorities aimed at tackling multimorbidity. Against the unprecedented level of urbanisation taking place in Tanzania, the burden of multimorbidity and its co...
Preprint
Full-text available
Objective: Studies from industrialized countries report a harmful association between pregnancy loss and postpartum mortality. However, the nature of this relationship has not been established in resource limited sub-Saharan Africa. Given the potential implications of this knowledge for risk stratification and subsequent maternal health in sub-Saha...
Preprint
Full-text available
Background: Global warming is projected to cause a substantial rise in temperatures with serious health implications across sub-Saharan Africa. Although South African policy makers have drafted a climate change adaptation plan, potential health threats posed by increasing temperatures on womens reproductive health are overlooked due to the lack of...
Preprint
Full-text available
Study question: What is the relationship between interpregnancy interval (IPI) and pregnancy loss in a a rural sub-Saharan African (SSA) setting? Summary answer: IPIs >60 months, but not <6 months, were associated with a higher odds of pregnancy loss in our SSA setting. What is known already: IPIs >60 months are detrimental to both fetal and matern...
Article
Full-text available
Background HIV affects many adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in South Africa. Given the bi-directional HIV and mental health relationship, mental health services may help prevent and treat HIV in this population. We therefore examined the association between common mental disorders (CMD) and HIV-related behaviours and service utilisation, in...
Article
Full-text available
From 1985 to 2016, the prevalence of underweight decreased, and that of obesity and severe obesity increased, in most regions, with significant variation in the magnitude of these changes across regions. We investigated how much change in mean body mass index (BMI) explains changes in the prevalence of underweight, obesity, and severe obesity in di...
Article
Full-text available
From 1985 to 2016, the prevalence of underweight decreased, and that of obesity and severe obesity increased, in most regions, with significant variation in the magnitude of these changes across regions. We investigated how much change in mean body mass index (BMI) explains changes in the prevalence of underweight, obesity, and severe obesity in di...
Article
Full-text available
Introduction: The uptake of HIV testing and linkage to care remains low among men, contributing to high HIV incidence in women in South Africa. We conducted the "Home-Based Intervention to Test and Start" (HITS) in a 2x2 factorial cluster randomized controlled trial in one of the World's largest ongoing HIV cohorts in rural South Africa aimed at e...
Article
Background and objectives: Adolescents living with perinatally acquired HIV (ALPHIV) on antiretroviral therapy (ART) have been noted to have poorer adherence, retention and virologic control compared to adolescents with nonperinatally acquired HIV, children or adults. We aimed to describe and examine factors associated with longitudinal virologic...
Article
Background Multiple countries across the world are facing the second wave of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus. Understanding the early transmission dynamics is crucial for outbreak control measures and evaluating public health policy. Methods We used detailed contact tracing data for the rural county of Lincolnshire to quantify risk f...

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