Improving Access to COVID-19 Screening and Testing in African Countries

Researchers conduct community outreach in remote areas in Lesotho in order to increase access to essential health services. Photo credit: SolidarMed and Swiss TPH - A new joint initiative from the Botnar Research Centre for Child Health and the European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership will support three COVID-19-related projects in lowand middle-income countries, including a project led by Swiss TPH and Zambart that improves access to COVID-19 screening and testing in Lesotho and Zambia. A new Botnar Research Centre for Child Health (BRCCH) and the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) Collaboration Initiative will support three projects that range from immunology to diagnostics and health screening strategies for COVID-19 in lowand middle-income countries, including a project from Swiss TPH on improving access to COVID-19 screening and testing in Lesotho and Zambia. The projects, which are a complementary extension to the ongoing research activities being funded by BRCCH and EDCTP, will launch in early 2021 and will be supported with 900,000 CHF in total funding over a period of two years. Improving Access to SARS-CoV-2 Screening and Testing One of the three projects is led by Swiss TPH and Zambart, and will investigate the effects of community-led interventions, rapid point-of-care diagnostics and swab self-collection in mitigating the impact of COVID-19 in Lesotho and Zambia. The project will be carried out by a 14-member consortium, including collaborators based at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, SolidarMed, FIND, and KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation.