Clinical management and mortality among COVID-19 cases in sub-Saharan Africa: A retrospective study from Burkina Faso and simulated case analysis

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Abstract

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  1. SciScore for 10.1101/2020.06.04.20119784: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board StatementIRB: The study was therefore not subject to review by an ethics board.
    RandomizationThe base uninfected population was randomly drawn using demographics as reported by census data to account for age and gender strata in Burkina Faso.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    No key resources detected.


    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).


    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    Despite the limitations, highlighting and evaluating low-cost, easily scalable approaches for clinical management is critical to lower the CFR and to encourage timely care-seeking. This is particularly important in settings with significant undetected community transmission, so that individuals who develop COVID-like symptoms seek care early and are not deterred by the notion that the disease has no cure. When considering clinical interventions, it is important to recognize that availability alone is not adequate to ensure proper clinical care. Reports on oxygen availability in LMICs have indicated that use is common but heterogeneous,35 with greater availability in more urban environments and at higher levels of care due to reduced access to pulse oximetry in more rural settings and at lower levels of care.36-38 In addition to requiring the necessary equipment, patients and caregivers must be willing to accept and administer the care respectively, which has been observed as a barrier39 such as due to perceived cost and lack of familiarity with the equipment which will need to be addressed during the COVID care response. This is concerning because if patients are escalated to higher levels, this introduces delays in care, and means that they will bring COVID with them to the hospital populations. In parallel to building treatment capacity, risk communication and community engagement40 will be essential to increasing awareness of its availability and affordability, so that peo...

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.


    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.


    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.


    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.