ArticleBMJ open2023
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the quality of medical products in Zimbabwe: a qualitative study based on key informant interviews with health system stakeholders.
Article in BMJ open, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed, 5 citations in OpenAlex.
- An outbreak ofInfection prevention in practice · 2024Article
- Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Medical Product Procurement, Prices, and Supply Chain in Zimbabwe: Lessons for Supply Chain Resiliency.Global health, science and practice · 2023Article
- Drivers and strategies to combat substandard and falsified medicines in low- and middle-income countries: A systematic review of qualitative evidence.The journal of medicine accessReview
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveTo explore the impact of the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the quality of medical products in Zimbabwe, including market risks for substandard and falsified products and impacts on quality assurance activities.
designQualitative study based on in-depth key informant interviews.
settingHealth system stakeholders across the medical product supply chain in Zimbabwe.
participants36 key informants were interviewed between April and June 2021.
resultsWe found that the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted quality assurance and regulatory activities of medical products in Zimbabwe, resulted in observations of poor-quality personal protective equipment (PPE) and other COVID-19-related products and led to increased risks to quality. Risks to quality due to COVID-19-related disruptions included increased layers of agents in the supply chain and an influx of non-traditional suppliers. COVID-19-related movement restrictions reduced access to health facilities and thus may have increased the usage of the informal market where smuggled and unregistered medical products are sold with less oversight by the regulator. Most reports of poor-quality medical products were for PPE, such as masks and infrared thermometers, used for the COVID-19 response. Besides these reports, many participants stated that the quality of essential medicines in the formal sector, not related to COVID-19, had largely been maintained during the pandemic due to the regulator's stringent quality assurance process. Incentives for suppliers to maintain quality to retain large donor-funded contracts, and the need for local wholesalers and distributors to comply with quality-related aspects of distribution agreements with global manufacturers of brand-name medical products, mitigated threats to quality.
conclusionsThe COVID-19 pandemic presented opportunities and market risks for circulation of substandard and falsified medical products in Zimbabwe. There is a need for policymakers to invest in measures to safeguard the quality of medical products during emergencies and to build resiliency against future supply chain shocks.
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Registered trials
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