KRISP NEWS
WHAT: Weekly interaction with members of the media to share critical updates on steps taken to implement key aspects of the joint continental strategy for COVID-19 response; and to also highlight the coordinated efforts by African Union Member States to combat the pandemic in their respective countries.
Ahead of the emergence of the SARS-CoV -2 outbreak in South Africa KRISP started preparing for it. KRISP really rose to the occasion in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic in Africa. In the process, KRISP trained 1000s of health care workers, produced genomic protocols & capacitated dozens of laboratories in Africa to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic
The use of genomics to support the response to COVID-19 and containment of the virus in Africa is currently low. To address this suboptimal use of genomics, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Institute of Pathogen Genomics, in consultation with the Africa CDC led African Task Force for Coronavirus Preparedness and Response (AFTCOR) laboratory technical working group.
There have been 17090 more deaths in the country than there were in previous years during the same period. But the official number of Covid-19 deaths is about 6000. There is a significant departure from the historical trends, even under these abnormal circumstances.
South Africa witnessed some 17000 extra deaths from natural causes or 59% more than would normally be expected between early May and mid-July, scientists said, suggesting many more people are dying of Covid-19 than shown in official figures.
South Africa has joined the United States, Brazil, India, and Russia as the countries with the most recorded COVID-19 cases. On Saturday, Health Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize announced the country has 350,879 confirmed COVID-19 cases.
The official number of deaths linked to Covid-19 in South Africa doesn’t reflect the true scale of the crisis, with provinces that have been hit hardest by the outbreak showing a surge in fatalities, health experts say.
KRISP SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATIONS
Fatal outcome of chikungunya virus infection in Brazil.
Lima STS, Souza WM, Cavalcante JW, Candido DS, Fumagalli MJ, Carrera JP, Mello LMS, Araújo FMC, Ramalho ILC, Barreto FKA, Braga DNM, Simião AR, Silva MJM, Oliveira RMAB, Lima CPS, Lins CS, Barata RR, Melo MNP, Souza MPC, Franco LM, Távora FRF, Lemos DRQ, Alencar CHM, Jesus R, Fonseca V, Dutra LH, Abreu AL, Araújo ELL, Freitas ARR, Júnior JLSGV, Pybus OG, Figueiredo LTM, Faria NR, Nunes MRT, Cavalcanti LPG, Miyajima F., Clinical Infectious Diseases (2020), ciaa1038 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciaa1038:.
Yellow fever transmission in non-human primates, Bahia, Northeastern Brazil.
Goes de Jesus J, Gräf T, Giovanetti M, Mares-Guia MA, Xavier J, Lima Maia M, Fonseca V, Fabri A, Santos RF, Pereira FM, Santos LFO, Silva LRO, Maia ZPG, Cerqueira JXG, Thèze J, Abade L, Cordeiro MCS, Torquato SSC, Santana EB, Silva NSJ, Dourado RSO, Alves AB, Guedes AS, Filho PMC, Faria NR, Campelo de Albuquerque CF, Abreu AL, Romano APM, Croda J, Said RFC, Cunha GM, Cerqueira JMF, Mello ALS, Filippis AMB, Alcantara LCJ., PLoS Negl Trop Dis (2020), 14(8): e0008405. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0008405:14(8): e0008405.
Accelerating genomics-based surveillance for COVID-19 response in Africa.
Tessema SK, Inzaule SC, Christoffels A, Kebede Y, de Oliveira T, Ouma AEO, Happi CT, Nkengasong JN, Lancet Microbe (2020), https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-5247(20)30117-8:.
A genomics network established to respond rapidly to public health threats in South Africa.
Msomi N, Mlisana K, Willianson C, Bhiman JN, Goedhals D, Engelbrecht S, Van Zyl G, Preiser W, Hardie D, Hsiao M, Mulder N, Martin D, Christoffels A, York D, Giandhari J, Wilkinson E, Pillay S, Tegally H, James SE, Kanzi A, Lessells RJ, de Oliveira T, Lancet Microbe (2020), https://doi.org/10.1016/S2666-5247(20)30116-6:.
Exposure to waste sites and their impact on health: a panel and geospatial analysis of nationally representative data from South Africa, 2008–2015.
Tomita A, Cuadros DF, Burns JK, Tanser F, Slotow R, Lancet Planetary Health (2020), 4: e223–34:.
Neurocognitive functioning in MDR-TB patients with and without HIV in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Ramlall S, Lessells RJ, Naidu T, Mthembu SS, Padayatchi N, Burns JK, Tomita A, Tropical Medicine and International Health (2020), 25 (8), 919–927 :.
Opportunities and Challenges in HIV Treatment as Prevention Research: Results from the ANRS 12249 Cluster-Randomized Trial and Associated Population Cohort.
Tanser F, Kim H-Y, Vandormael A, Iwuji C, Barnighausen T, Current HIV/AIDS Reports (2020), 17:97–108 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11904-020-00487-1:.
KRISP VIDEOS
How a team of scientists worked tirelessly to help the COVID-19 response in Africa
By: Pillay S, Giandhari J, Tegally H, Wilkinson E, Chimukangara B, Lessells R, Mattison S, Moosa Y, Gazy I, Fish M, Singh L, Khanyile KS, Fonseca V, Giovanetti M, Alcantara LCJ, de Oliveira T
KRISP BLOGS
KRISP BIOINFORMATICS TOOLS
Genome Detective Coronavirus Typing Too;
Genome Detective Coronavirus Typing Tool for rapid identification and characterization of novel coronavirus genomes
Genome Detective Dengue Virus Typing Tool
This is a beta version of our Dengue Virus Typing tool. For the mean time, this tool should be used for evaluation only. Please send feedback to Tulio de Oliveira.
Genome Detective Zika Typing Tool
This is the first version of the Zika typing tool, which uses phylogenetic analysis to identify the species and genotype of the virus.
Genome Detective Chikungunya Typing Tool
This is the first version of the Chikungunya typing tool, which uses phylogenetic analysis to identify the species and genotype of the virus.
Genome Detective Yellow Fever Virus Typing Tool
This is the first version of the Yellow Fever typing tool, which uses phylogenetic analysis to identify the species and genotype of the virus.
This is the first version of our Arbovirus typing tool for Chikungunya, Dengue, Yellow Fever and Zika
REGA HIV Subtyping Tool V3 - Belgium Mirror
Phylogenetic tool to identify the HIV-1 subtypes and recombinants. Query sequences are analysed for recombination using bootscanning methods. The version 3 contains new CRFs (CRF01_AE to CRF47_BF).
MORE TOOLS
KRISP has been created by the coordinated effort of the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN), the Technology Innovation Agency (TIA) and the South African Medical Research Countil (SAMRC).
Location: K-RITH Tower Building
Nelson R Mandela School of Medicine, UKZN
719 Umbilo Road, Durban, South Africa.
Director: Prof. Tulio de Oliveira