ArticleEpidemiology and infection2022
COVID-19 data reporting systems in Africa reveal insights for future pandemics.
Article in Epidemiology and infection, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Productivity Losses due to Health Problems Arising from COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review of Population-Level Studies Worldwide.Applied health economics and health policy · 2025Pooled it
- An account of health systems resilience to emergencies in Africa: a scoping review.Globalization and health · 2026Article
- Intra-action review of West African health Organization's response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Economic Community of West African states (ECOWAS) region, 2020 - 2022.BMC health services research · 2026Article
- COVID-19 in Ghana-Using the health system framework to describe RISE-mitigation strategies for COVID-19 response and recovery in Ghana.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Is Ghana Prepared for Another Arboviral Outbreak? Evaluating the 2024 Dengue Fever Outbreak in the Context of Past Yellow Fever, Influenza, and COVID-19 Outbreaks.Tropical medicine and infectious disease · 2025Review
- The importance of funding and investment to strengthen data science in Africa.Communications medicine · 2025Article
- Seroprevalence of SARS-CoV-2 Antibodies and Associated Factors in Bamako, Mali: A Population-Based Cross-Sectional Study in September 2022.Influenza and other respiratory viruses · 2024Article
- Rapid assessment of data systems for COVID-19 vaccination in the WHO African Region.Epidemiology and infection · 2024Article
- Public health surveillance perspectives from provincial COVID-19 experiences, South Africa 2021.Jamba (Potchefstroom, South Africa) · 2024Article
- The COVID-19 experience in Africa and the Middle East.Annals of medicine · 2023Review
- The promise of data science for health research in Africa.Nature communications · 2023Review
- Data quality model for assessing public COVID-19 big datasets.The Journal of supercomputing · 2023Article
- A pandemic within a pandemic? Admission to COVID-19 wards in hospitals is associated with increased prevalence of antimicrobial resistance in two African settings.Annals of clinical microbiology and antimicrobials · 2023Article
- Evaluation of a public COVID-19 dashboard in the Western Cape, South Africa: a tool for communication, trust, and transparency.BMC public health · 2022Article
- Underestimation of the number of COVID-19 cases, an epidemiological threat.Epidemiology and infection · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
8 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Globally, countries have used diverse methods to report data during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using international guidelines and principles of emergency management, we compare national data reporting systems in African countries in order to determine lessons for future pandemics. We analyse COVID-19 reporting practices across 54 African countries through 2020. Reporting systems were diverse and included summaries, press releases, situation reports and online dashboards. These systems were communicated via social media accounts and websites belonging to ministries of health and public health. Data variables from the reports included event detection (cases/deaths/recoveries), risk assessment (demographics/co-morbidities) and response (total tests/hospitalisations). Of countries with reporting systems, 36/53 (67.9%) had recurrent situation reports and/or online dashboards which provided more extensive data. All of these systems reported cases, deaths and recoveries. However, few systems contained risk assessment and response data, with only 5/36 (13.9%) reporting patient co-morbidities and 9/36 (25%) including total hospitalisations. Further evaluation of reporting practices in Cameroon, Egypt, Kenya, Senegal and South Africa as examples from different sub-regions revealed differences in reporting healthcare capacity and preparedness data. Improving the standardisation and accessibility of national data reporting systems could augment research and decision-making, as well as increase public awareness and transparency for national governments.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.