Browsing by Author "Koyuncu A"

Now showing 1 - 7 of 7

Clinical presentation of congenital syphilis in a rotavirus vaccine cohort study in Lusaka: a case series.
(2021-Apr-01) Sukwa N; Simuyandi M; Chirwa M; Kumwimba YM; Chilyabanyama ON; Laban N; Koyuncu A; Chilengi R; Enteric Disease and Vaccines Research Unit (EDVRU), Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia. Michelo.Simuyandi@cidrz.org.; Enteric Disease and Vaccines Research Unit (EDVRU), Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia.; CIDRZ; Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ)
BACKGROUND: Despite an otherwise robust national antenatal clinic program, maternal and congenital syphilis remains an important public health issue in Zambia. This case series reports the clinical presentation of seven infants diagnosed with congenital syphilis in Lusaka, Zambia. CASE PRESENTATIONS: The cases in this series were incidental findings from a cohort of infants enrolled in a rotavirus vaccine immunogenicity study recruiting infants at 6 weeks of age. As part of clinical care for enrolled participants, we screened mothers of children who presented with adverse events of (i) repeated upper respiratory tract infections/coryza, (ii) skin lesions, and (iii) poor weight gain, for syphilis using rapid plasma reagin test. From a cohort of 214 mother-infant pairs enrolled between September and December 2018, a total of 115 (44.4%) of the mothers reported to have not been screened during antenatal care. Of these, four (3.5%) reported to have tested positive; and only two received treatment. Seven out of 57 (26.6%) children meeting the screening criteria had a positive rapid plasma reagin test result. The mean age at diagnosis was 4.5 months (1.3 months standard deviation), and the common presenting features included coryza (6/7), skin lesions (4/7), conjunctivitis (3/7), pallor/anemia (5/7), wasting (2/7), and underweight (5/7). Three of the seven infants were exposed to human immunodeficiency virus. Following diagnosis, all seven cases received standard treatment according to national treatment guidelines. That is, 6/7 cases received inpatient care with benzylpenicillin for 10 days, while 1/7 was treated as an outpatient and received daily procaine penicillin for 10 days. CONCLUSION: These findings suggest that, though screening for syphilis is part of the standard antenatal care in Zambia, it is not offered optimally. There is urgent need to address programmatic shortcomings in syphilis screening and treatment to avoid long-term sequelae. Additionally, clinicians need to raise their index of suspicion and rule out syphilis when confronted with these clinical symptoms, regardless of the mother's human immunodeficiency virus status.
Development and validation of a novel scale for antiretroviral therapy readiness among pregnant women in urban Zambia with newly diagnosed HIV infection.
(2023-Apr-06) Mubiana-Mbewe M; Bosomprah S; Saroj RK; Kadota J; Koyuncu A; Thankian K; Vinikoor MJ; Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana.; Centre for Infectious Diseases Research in Zambia, Plot 34620 Off Alick Nkhata Road, P.O. Box 34681, Lusaka, Zambia. Mwangelwa.Mbewe@cidrz.org.; Department of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, USA.; Centre for Infectious Diseases Research in Zambia, Plot 34620 Off Alick Nkhata Road, P.O. Box 34681, Lusaka, Zambia.; UCSF Center for Tuberculosis and Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine San Francisco General Hospital, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA.; Department of Gender Studies, University of Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia.; Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins University, Maryland, USA.; School of Computational and Integrative Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, 110067, India.; CIDRZ; Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ)
BACKGROUND: Women who are newly diagnosed with HIV infection during pregnancy may not be ready to immediately initiate lifelong antiretroviral therapy (ART; called Option B +) as is recommended. Lack of "readiness" drives early disengagement from care and undermines prevention of HIV transmission to infants. Several studies have shown high early attrition of women initiating ART in pregnancy. Although poor ART uptake and adherence have been attributed to various factors including stigma, disclosure issues and structural issues, there is no standard way of determining which pregnant woman will face challenges and therefore need additional support. We developed and validated a novel ART readiness tool in Lusaka, Zambia. METHODS: The aim of this study was to develop and validate a tool that could be used to assess how ready a newly diagnosed pregnant woman living with HIV would be to initiate ART on the day of diagnosis. Using a mixed method design, we conducted this study in three public-setting health facilities in Lusaka, Zambia. Informed by qualitative research and literature review, we identified 27 candidate items. We assessed content validity using expert and target population judgment approaches. We administered the 27-item questionnaire to 454 newly diagnosed pregnant women living with HIV, who were enrolled into a randomized trial (trials number NCT02459678). We performed item reduction analysis and used Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.70 as threshold for reliability. RESULTS: A total of 454 pregnant women living with HIV enrolled in the study between March 2017 and December 2017; 452 had complete data for analysis. The correlation coefficient between the 27 items on the completed ART readiness scale ranged from 0.31 to 0.70 while item discrimination index ranged from -0.01 to 2.38. Sixteen items were selected for the final scale, representing three domains, which we classified as "internalized and anticipated HIV stigma", "partner support" and "anticipated structural barriers". CONCLUSION: We developed and validated a tool that could be used to assess readiness of newly diagnosed women living with HIV to initiate ART. This ART readiness tool could allow clinics to tailor limited resources to pregnant women living with HIV needing additional support to initiate and remain on ART.
Effect of Enhanced Adherence Package on Early ART Uptake Among HIV-Positive Pregnant Women in Zambia: An Individual Randomized Controlled Trial.
(2021-Mar) Mubiana-Mbewe M; Bosomprah S; Kadota JL; Koyuncu A; Kusanathan T; Mweebo K; Musokotwane K; Mulenga PL; Chi BH; Vinikoor MJ; Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia, Plot 34620 Off Alick Nkhata Road, P.O. Box 34681, Lusaka, Zambia. Mwangelwa.Mbewe@cidrz.org.; Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana.; Department of Medicine, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, USA.; Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, USA.; Department of Gender Studies, University of Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia.; Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia, Plot 34620 Off Alick Nkhata Road, P.O. Box 34681, Lusaka, Zambia.; Prevention, Care and Treatment Branch, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Lusaka, Zambia.; Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.; Directorate of Public Health, Zambian Ministry of Health, Lusaka, Zambia.; CIDRZ; Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ)
We evaluated the effect of an option B-plus Enhanced Adherence Package (BEAP), on early ART uptake in a randomized controlled trial. HIV-positive, ART naïve pregnant women in Lusaka, Zambia, were randomized to receive BEAP (phone calls/home visits, additional counseling, male partner engagement and missed-visit follow-up) versus standard of care (SOC). The primary outcome was initiating and remaining on ART at 30 days. Analysis was by intention to treat (ITT) using logistic regression. Additional per protocol analysis was done. We enrolled 454 women; 229 randomized to BEAP and 225 to SOC. Within 30 days of eligibility, 445 (98.2%) initiated ART. In ITT analysis, 82.5% BEAP versus 80.4% SOC participants reached primary outcome (crude relative risk [RR] 1.03; 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.91-1.16; Wald test statistic = 0.44; p-value = 0.66). In per protocol analysis, (92 participants (40.2%) excluded), 91.9% BEAP versus 80.4% SOC participants reached primary outcome (crude RR 1.14; 95% CI 1.02-1.29; Wald test statistic = 2.23; p-value = 0.03). Early ART initiation in pregnancy was nearly universal but there was early drop out suggesting need for additional adherence support.This trial was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (trials number NCT02459678) on May 14, 2015.
Human-Centered Design Lessons for Implementation Science: Improving the Implementation of a Patient-Centered Care Intervention.
(2019-Dec) Beres LK; Simbeza S; Holmes CB; Mwamba C; Mukamba N; Sharma A; Munamunungu V; Mwachande M; Sikombe K; Bolton Moore C; Mody A; Koyuncu A; Christopoulos K; Jere L; Pry J; Ehrenkranz PD; Budden A; Geng E; Sikazwe I; Georgetown University, Washington, DC.; Department of Interna6onal Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD.; University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA.; D'EVA Consulting, Washington, DC.; The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, WA.; Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia.; CIDRZ; Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ)
BACKGROUND: Evidence-based HIV interventions often fail to reach anticipated impact due to insufficient utilization in real-world health systems. Human-centered design (HCD) represents a novel approach in tailoring innovations to fit end-users, narrowing the gap between efficacious interventions and impact at scale. METHODS: We combined a narrative literature review of HCD in HIV programs with our experience using HCD to redesign an intervention promoting patient-centered care (PCC) practices among health care workers (HCW) in Zambia. We summarize the use and results of HCD in the global HIV response and share case study insights to advance conceptualization of HCD applications. RESULTS: The literature review identified 13 articles (representing 7 studies) on the use of HCD in HIV. All studies featured HCD hallmarks including empathy development, user-driven inquiry, ideation, and iterative refinement. HCD was applied to mHealth design, a management intervention and pre-exposure prophylaxis delivery. Our HCD application addressed a behavioral service delivery target: changing HCW patient-centered beliefs, attitudes, and practices. Through in-depth developer-user interaction, our HCD approach revealed specific HCW support for and resistance to PCC, suggesting intervention revisions to improve feasibility and acceptability and PCC considerations that could inform implementation in transferable settings. CONCLUSIONS: As both a research and implementation tool, HCD has potential to improve effective implementation of the HIV response, particularly for product development; new intervention introduction; and complex system interventions. Further research on HCD application strengths and limitations is needed. Those promoting PCC may improve implementation success by seeking out resonance and anticipating the challenges our HCD process identified.
Identifying barriers to ART initiation and adherence: An exploratory qualitative study on PMTCT in Zambia.
(2022) Kanguya T; Koyuncu A; Sharma A; Kusanathan T; Mubanga M; Chi BH; Vinikoor MJ; Mubiana-Mbewe M; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States of America.; Department of Gender Studies, University of Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia.; Centre for Infectious Diseases Research in Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia.; University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, United States of America.; CIDRZ; Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ)
BACKGROUND: Though antiretroviral therapy (ART) is widely available, HIV positive pregnant women in Zambia are less likely to start and remain on therapy throughout pregnancy and after delivery. This study sought to understand readiness to start ART among HIV pregnant women from the perspectives of both women and men in order to suggest more holistic programs to support women to continue life-long ART after delivery. METHODS: We conducted a qualitative study with HIV positive pregnant women before and after ART initiation, and men with female partners, to understand readiness to start lifelong ART. We conducted 28 in-depth interviews among women and 2 focus group discussions among male partners. Data were transcribed verbatim and analyzed in NVivo 12 using thematic analysis. Emerging themes from the data were organized using the social ecological framework. RESULTS: Men thought of their female partners as young and needing their supervision to initiate and stay on ART. Women agreed that disclosure and partner support were necessary preconditions to ART initiation and adherence and, expressed fear of divorce as a prominent barrier to disclosure. Maternal love and desire to look after one's children instilled a sense of responsibility among women which motivated them to overcome individual, interpersonal and health system level barriers to initiation and adherence. Women preferred adherence strategies that were discrete, the effectiveness of which, depended on women's intrinsic motivation. CONCLUSION: The results support current policies in Zambia to encourage male engagement in ART care. To appeal to male partners, messaging on ART should be centered on emphasizing the importance of male involvement to ensure women remain engaged in ART care. Programs aimed at supporting postpartum ART adherence should design messages that appeal to both men's role in couples' joint decision-making and women's maternal love as motivators for adherence.
Nutritional status, environmental enteric dysfunction, and prevalence of rotavirus diarrhoea among children in Zambia.
(2020) Koyuncu A; Simuyandi M; Bosomprah S; Chilengi R; Centre for Infectious Diseases Research in Zambia, Lusaka, Zambia.; Department of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana.; CIDRZ; Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ)
BACKGROUND: Rotavirus is the most common cause of fatal diarrhoeal disease among children under the age of five globally and is responsible for millions of hospitalizations each year. Although nutritional status and environmental enteric dysfunction (EED) are recognized as important predictors of susceptibility to diarrhoeal disease, no research to date has examined the mechanisms by which undernutrition and EED may protect against prevalence of rotavirus infection. METHODS: We utilized data collected from a study evaluating the effectiveness of Rotarix™ vaccine against severe gastroenteritis among children under the age of 5 in Zambia. The prevalence of malnutrition, wasting, and stunting at the time of study enrollment was calculated using WHO child growth standards. Commercial ELISA kits were used to assess levels of faecal biomarkers for EED: alpha-1-antitrypsin and myeloperoxidase, and calprotectin. Separate multivariate logistic regression models were used to examine each measure of nutritional status and rotavirus diarrhoea including and excluding adjustment for EED. RESULTS: In models that did not include adjustment for EED, malnourished children had 0.66 times the odds of having rotavirus diarrhoea compared to children with normal nutritional status (95% CI: 0.42, 1.0; p = 0.07). EED severity score was significantly higher among controls asymptomatic for diarrhoeal disease compared to cases with rotavirus diarrhoea (p = 0.02). CONCLUSION: The morphological changes associated with EED may confer protection against rotavirus infection and subsequent diarrhoeal disease among children. Further research is critically needed to better understand the complex mechanisms by which nutritional status and EED may impact susceptibility to rotavirus in early life.
The association of maternal age with adverse neonatal outcomes in Lusaka, Zambia: a prospective cohort study.
(2020-Nov-11) Tembo T; Koyuncu A; Zhuo H; Mwendafilumba M; Manasyan A; Department of Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia, P.O Box 34681, Lusaka, Zambia.; Department of Reproductive, Maternal, Newborn and Child Health, Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia, P.O Box 34681, Lusaka, Zambia. Taniya.Tembo@cidrz.org.; Division of Neonatology School of Medicine , University of Alabama at Birmingham , Birmingham, USA.; Analysis Unit , Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia , P.O Box 34681, Lusaka, Zambia.; Surgical Outcomes and Epidemiology-Surgical Department , Yale University , Connecticut, CT 06520, New Haven, USA.; CIDRZ; Centre for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia (CIDRZ)
BACKGROUND: Pregnancy among adolescents, whether intended or not, is a public health concern as it is generally considered high risk for both mothers and their newborns. In Zambia, where many women engage in early sexual behaviour or marry at a young age, 28.5% of girls aged 15-19 years were pregnant with their first child in the year 2013-2014. This study sought to explore associations between maternal age and neonatal outcomes among pregnant women in Lusaka, Zambia. METHODS: This was a secondary analysis of data nested within a larger population-based prospective cohort study which was implemented in three government health facilities-two first level hospitals and one clinic in Lusaka, Zambia. Women presenting to the study sites for antenatal care were enrolled into the study and followed up for collection of maternal and neonatal outcomes at 7, 28 and 42 days postpartum. The study's primary outcomes were the incidence of maternal and newborn complications and factors associated with adverse neonatal outcomes. Statistical significance was evaluated at a significance level of P < 0.05. RESULTS: The study included 11,501 women, 15.6% of whom were adolescents aged 10-19 years. Generally, adolescence did not have statistically significant associations with poor maternal health outcomes. However, the risk of experiencing obstructed labour, premature rupture of membranes and postpartum hemorrhage was higher among adolescents than women aged 20-24 years while the risk of severe infection was lower and non-significant. Adolescents also had 1.36 times the odds of having a low birthweight baby (95% CI 1.12, 1.66) and were at risk of preterm birth (aOR = 1.40, 95% CI 1.06, 1.84). Their newborns were in need of bag and mask resuscitation at birth (aOR = 0.62, 95% CI 0.41, 0.93). Advanced maternal age was significantly associated with increased odds of hypertension/ pre-eclampsia (95% CI 1.54, 5.89) and preterm labour (aOR = 2.78, 95% CI 1.24, 6.21). CONCLUSIONS: Adolescence is a risk factor for selected pregnancy outcomes in urban health facilities in Lusaka, Zambia. Health care workers should intensify the provision of targeted services to improve neonatal health outcomes. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Clinical trial number and URL: NCT03923023 (Retrospectively registered). Clinical trial registration date: April 22, 2019.