Search

Introduction: Smartphone applications (apps) for pharmacovigilance present an opportunity for integration as cost-effective healthcare service intervention into basic healthcare services in low-resource settings. This study aimed to (i) evaluate the implementation of the Med Safety app in Burkina Faso, and (ii) compare the characteristics of the reports sent by the Med Safety app with those sent on paper form. Methods: The study had two components: (i) a cross-sectional online survey assessing the Med Safety app, and (ii) a retrospective analysis comparing the characteristics of the Med Safety reports with those of the paper form, received by the National Pharmacovigilance Centre of Burkina Faso (CNVPS), from January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2022. We evaluated the success of the implementation of the Med Safety intervention using measures of acceptability, usefulness and feasibility. This assessment involved a set of 14 items rated on a 4-point Likert scale. Acceptability, feasibility, and usefulness were determined based on achieving a total score higher than the mean. Subsequently, we computed the proportion of participants whose overall score for all items exceeded the mean. Continuous and categorical variables were compared using the Wilcoxon rank-sum test and the Chi2 test, respectively. The significance level of the statistical test was set at 5%. Results: The survey participation rate was 51.9% (160/308). Half of the respondents were in the 35-44 age group (50.6%), and participants were predominantly male (71.9%). The Med Safety app was acceptable, feasible, and useful to 58.1% of respondents. The most useful features of the app were "reporting" (53.1%), "news" (13.6%) and "watch list" (12.4%). During the period, a total of 1,472 reports were received, including 357 (24.3%) through Med Safety and 1,115 (75.7%) through the paper form. The reports of adverse events following immunization received at the CNVPS numbered 974 (66.2%), these were related to COVID-19 vaccines, with 256 (26.3%) through the Med Safety and 718 (73.7%) through the paper form. The median time to submit the reports to the CNVPS was 159 (IQR 59–187) days for the Med Safety and 166 (IQR 107–281) days for the paper form (p < 0.001). Conclusion: In Burkina Faso, the Med Safety was found to be acceptable, useful, and feasible by users surveyed. In addition, and compared to the paper form, the app reduces the time to submit a report, and with increase in use, the reporting timeframe could be further improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Burkina Faso, a country in Africa's meningitis belt, introduced 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV13) in October 2013, with 3 primary doses given at 8, 12 and 16 weeks of age. To assess whether the new PCV13 program controlled pneumococcal carriage, we evaluated overall and serotype-specific colonization among children and adults during the first 3 years after introduction.Methods: We conducted 2 population-based, cross-sectional, age-stratified surveys in 2015 and 2017 in the city of Bobo-Dioulasso. We used standardized questionnaires to collect sociodemographic, epidemiologic, and vaccination data. Consenting eligible participants provided nasopharyngeal (all ages) and oropharyngeal (≥5 years only) swab specimens. Swab specimens were plated onto blood agar either directly (2015) or after broth enrichment (2017). Pneumococci were serotyped by conventional multiplex polymerase chain reaction. We assessed vaccine effect by comparing the proportion of vaccine-type (VT) carriage among colonized individuals from a published baseline survey (2008) with each post-PCV survey.Results: We recruited 992 (2015) and 1005 (2017) participants. Among children aged <5 years, 42.8% (2015) and 74.0% (2017) received ≥2 PCV13 doses. Among pneumococcal carriers aged <1 year, VT carriage declined from 55.8% in 2008 to 36.9% in 2017 (difference, 18.9%; 95% confidence interval, 1.9%-35.9%; P = .03); among carriers aged 1-4 years, VT carriage declined from 55.3% to 31.8% (difference, 23.5%; 6.8%-40.2%; P = .004); and among participants aged ≥5 years, no significant change was observed.Conclusion: Within 3 years of PCV13 implementation in Burkina Faso, we documented substantial reductions in the percentage of pneumococcal carriers with a VT among children aged <5 years, but not among persons aged ≥5 years. More time, a change in the PCV13 schedule, or both, may be needed to better control pneumococcal carriage in this setting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]