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SARS-CoV-2 Community Prevalence and Data Ownership in Ethiopia, Uganda and Kenya

Principal Researchers: Prof. Francisca Oladipo, Prof Mirjam van Reisen, Prof. Mark Musen, Dr. Erik Schultes, Dr. Wondimu Ayele, Dr. Getu Tadele, On-Going

Duration: 24 months
Research Objectives:

This research shall address three major concerns in virus outbreaks: (i) the proper documentation and storage of health data related to the infection for monitoring and learning lessons for future outbreaks, (ii) an understanding of the extent of the infection in the community by estimating the circulation of the SARS-CoV-2 infection in the sampled population, and (iii) assessing anti-SARS-CoV-2 sero-prevalence, in selected cities in the three African countries in focus.

The objective of the research is to improve health systems by data curation in residence whilst interoperable with data curated in other locations and assess the existence of immune-resistance (sero-prevalence) for COVID-19 infection in the aforementioned locations. The first part of this specific research will focus on the production and analysis of interoperable FAIR data for investigation of COVID-19 prevalence in widely diverse populations and circumstances, for the improvement of health systems, with the following steps:

(i)               COVID-19 data produced at the source is available in direct observational data in FAIR machine-readable format;

(ii)              Publication of this data on FAIR Data points governed under the regulatory framework relevant for the institution responsible for the production and curation of such data;

(iii)             Analysis of this machine-readable interoperable data in combination with other direct observational data across geographies and continents while physically remaining in residence;

(iv)             Exploration of data through AI queries on prevalence and spread compared over locations;

And from the available data, we will

(v)             Identify the contextual variables relevant to further investigation of COVID-19 prevalence.

(vi)             Determine the sero-prevalence of individuals among selected sample populations in the aforementioned cities and countries.

(vii)            Assess the magnitude of sero-positivity for COVID-19 in the general public in the aforementioned cities and countries

(viii) Curate observational data in FAIR format

(ix)  Model COVID-19 epidemic trajectory in the aforementioned countries.

(x)  Implement ross-sectional analysis to identify and protect vulnerable communities with high risk of infection

Nature of Research output:

A Network of FAIR Data Points for investigation of COVID-19 prevalence in widely diverse populations and circumstances, for the improvement of health systems in Uganda, Ethiopia and Kenya