Paper long abstract:

Background:

The current pandemic outbreak of Covid-19, which started in Wuhan a China region in December 2019, is caused by the SARS-Cov-2 virus. So far, there have been approximately 47 000 000 cases with more than a million of deaths. The current characterization of the disease indicated more severe cases and deaths in Asia, Europe and America comparing to Africa. More importantly, the Sub-Saharan region of Africa shows a different pattern of transmission, clinical features of SARS-CoV2. Therefore, this project is conducted in order to better understand the SARS-Cov-2 clinical epidemiology patterns in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Method:

A multicenter prospective and observational clinical epidemiology of Covid-19 which will be conducted in Gabon, Senegal and Ethiopia. The aim of this project is to determine infectivity, transmissibility and clinical outcomes of symptomatic index cases and their counterpart household contacts. Clinical parameters, including temperature, blood pressure, pulse rate, also inflammation markers, kidney and liver function tests will be collected, as well as nasal and oropharyngeal swabs samples in order to assess the viral load and the recovery time(negative to PCR) to be negative. Nasal scarpes and nasosorption for the evaluation of cytokines that are involved in nasopharyngeal intoxication. In addition, there will be a biobank sampling of urine, blood, stool, cells, and nasal mucosa samples for further analysis.

Expected outcomes:

At the end of the project, we expect to have a better understanding of COVID-19 clinical course, the transmission characteristics of SARS-CoV2 and its immune responses across Africa, with its specific sociocultural, environmental, economic, and population characteristics.

Key words: SARS-Cov2, Clinical-epidemiology, COVID-19, Biobank.

Funding: EDCTP: RIA2020EF-2961