Global Lessons and Potential Strategies in Combating COVID-19 Pandemic in Ethiopia: Systematic Review

  1. Yimam Getaneh
  2. Yimam Getaneh
  3. Ajanaw Yizengaw
  4. Sisasy Adane
  5. Kidist Zealiyas
  6. Zelalem Abate
  7. Kirubel Eshetu
  8. Sileshi Lulseged
  9. Hailemichael Desalegn
  10. Getnet Yimer
  11. Ebba Abate

Reviewed by

Read the full article

Listed in

Log in to save this article

Abstract

Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (CoVID-19) is a rapidly emerging disease that has been classified a pandemic by the World Health Organization (WHO). In the absence of treatment for this virus, there is an urgent need to find alternative public health strategies to control the spread. Here, we have conducted an online search and summarize the global COVID-19 pandemic situation and recommend potential mitigation strategies in the context of Ethiopia. Result: The most common global COVID-19 mitigation strategies include, whole of government approach including individual, community and environmental measures, detecting and isolating cases, contact tracing and quarantine, social and physical distancing measures including for mass gatherings and international travel measures. Social and physical distancing alone could prevent the pandemic from 60-95%. Moreover, detecting and isolation of cases were found to be crucial while access to testing was found to the global challenge. Individual measures including proper hand washing were also reported to be effective measures in preventing the pandemic. Asymptomatic cases of COVID-19 ranged from 25% to 80% and as a result, countries are revising the case definition for early detection of mild symptomatic cases of COVID-19 with inclusion of Chills, Muscle pain and new loss of taste or smell in addition to Cough, Shortness of breath, Fever and Sore throat. Ethiopia is also unique in the aspects of sociocultural prospects while more than 99.3% of the population has a religion. Moreover, 69% of the population is under the age of 29 years old and the health policy in the country focused on prevention and primary health care. Conclusion: While recommendations may change depending on the level of outbreak, we conclude that in most countries have benefited from early interventions and in setups like Africa including Ethiopia where health system capability is limited, community engagement supported by local evidence with strict implementation of social and physical distancing measures is mandatory. Community level case detection could enhance early identification of cases. Validation and use of rapid test kits could be vital to increase access for testing. Revision of case definitions for COVID-19 could be important for early detection of cases.

Article activity feed

  1. Version published to 10.31487/j.cor.2020.07.14
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2020.05.23.20111062: (What is this?)

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

    Table 1: Rigor

    Institutional Review Board Statementnot detected.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.
    Sex as a biological variablenot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    A three-step search strategy was utilized in this review; Initial search of Pub Med central and Google scholar was undertaken followed by analysis of the text words; COVID19,SARS-CoV-2, Global lessons, Pandemic, A second search using all identified keywords including Epidemiology, update,COVID19 thirdly, the reference list of all identified reports and articles were searched for additional studies finally Studies published in English insert language was considered for inclusion in this review.
    Google scholar
    suggested: (Google Scholar, RRID:SCR_008878)
    Data extraction and management: The following data was abstracted to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet: Author, Journal, Year; Setting: Country, number of study participants, design. 3.4.
    Microsoft Excel
    suggested: (Microsoft Excel, RRID:SCR_016137)

    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: An explicit section about the limitations of the techniques employed in this study was not found. We encourage authors to address study limitations.

    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.

  3. Version published to 10.1101/2020.05.23.20111062v1 on medRxiv