UCL Institute for Global Health, London.
Evidence for Change (E4c), Brussels, Belgium.
Glob Health Action. 2021 Oct 26;14(sup1):1983106. doi: 10.1080/16549716.2021.1983106.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the importance of reliable public health data has been highlighted, as well as the multiple challenges in collecting it, especially in low income and conflict-affected countries. Somalia reported its first confirmed case of COVID-19 on 16 March 2020 and has experienced fluctuating infection levels since then.
To monitor the impact of COVID-19 on beneficiaries of a long-term cash transfer programme in Somalia and assess the utility of a syndromic score case definition and rapid mortality surveillance tool.
Five rounds of telephone interviews were conducted from June 2020 - April 2021 with 1,046-1,565 households participating in a cash transfer programme. The incidence of COVID-19 symptoms and all-cause mortality were recorded. Carers of the deceased were interviewed a second time using a rapid verbal autopsy questionnaire to determine symptoms preceding death. Data were recorded on mobile devices and analysed using COVID Rapid Mortality Surveillance (CRMS) software and R.
The syndromic score case definition identified suspected symptomatic cases that were initially confined to urban areas but then spread widely throughout Somalia. During the first wave, the peak syndromic case rate (311 cases/million people/day) was 159 times higher than the average laboratory confirmed case rate reported by WHO for the same period. Suspected COVID-19 deaths peaked at 14.3 deaths/million people/day, several weeks after the syndromic case rate. Crude and under-five death rates did not cross the respective emergency humanitarian thresholds (1 and 2 deaths/10,000 people/day).
Use of telephone interviews to collect data on the evolution of COVID-19 outbreaks is a useful additional approach that can complement laboratory testing and mortality data from the health system. Further work to validate the syndromic score case definition and CRMS is justified.
在 COVID-19 大流行期间，可靠的公共卫生数据的重要性凸显出来，特别是在低收入和受冲突影响的国家，收集数据存在诸多挑战。索马里于 2020 年 3 月 16 日报告首例确诊 COVID-19 病例，此后感染水平不断波动。
监测 COVID-19 对索马里长期现金转移计划受益人的影响，并评估综合征评分病例定义和快速死亡率监测工具的实用性。
从 2020 年 6 月至 2021 年 4 月，对参与现金转移计划的 1046-1565 户家庭进行了五轮电话访谈。记录 COVID-19 症状的发生率和全因死亡率。对死者的护理人员进行了第二次快速口头尸检问卷调查，以确定死亡前的症状。数据记录在移动设备上，并使用 COVID 快速死亡率监测（CRMS）软件和 R 进行分析。
综合征评分病例定义确定了疑似有症状的病例，这些病例最初局限于城市地区，但随后在索马里广泛传播。在第一波疫情中，综合征病例的峰值发病率（311 例/百万人/天）比世界卫生组织同期报告的实验室确诊病例的平均发病率高 159 倍。疑似 COVID-19 死亡人数在综合征病例率数周后达到峰值，为 14.3 例/百万人/天。粗死亡率和五岁以下儿童死亡率均未超过各自的人道主义紧急阈值（1 和 2 例/10000 人/天）。
使用电话访谈收集 COVID-19 疫情演变的数据是一种有用的补充方法，可以补充实验室检测和卫生系统的死亡率数据。有理由进一步验证综合征评分病例定义和 CRMS。
