Cape Town – The SA Population Research Infrastructure Network (Saprin) has launched two new Health and Demographic Surveillance System (HDSS) nodes to expand its nationwide network and improve the response to Covid-19.
In the Western Cape, a broad-based consortium under the leadership of the provincial Health Department, including UCT, UWC, Stellenbosch University, the SA Medical Research Council (SAMRC) and the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), will oversee a node which will span the areas of Nomzamo in Strand and Bishop Lavis.
In Gauteng, the new node has been awarded to the Gauteng Research Triangle (GRT), a consortium of the University of Witwatersrand (Wits), University of Pretoria (UP) and the University of Johannesburg (UJ).
The planned sites will be in Atteridgeville and Melusi. Saprin, a national research platform funded by the Department of Science and Innovation (DSI) and hosted by the SAMRC, responded to the Covid-19 emergency by developing a surveillance protocol implemented within a month of the first case reported in the country.
The research involves ongoing phone interviews to screen for Covid-19 symptoms in more than 60000 rural households in Mpumalanga, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal.
According to Saprin director Dr Kobus Herbst, the two new urban nodes will expand the Saprin national research platform to five nodes that are linked together and expected to considerably strengthen the basis for conducting research, providing evidence for policy-making and research training.
“In the future, the network will be expanded to seven nodes and eThekwini will follow as part of the expansion. With the new nodes, the research network will cover an inclusive spectrum of the impoverished yet dynamically developing populations, and incorporate, bi-directional migration flows linking poor, rural communities with urban centres,” Herbst said.
“The impact of Covid-19, and its related ‘lockdown’ policies, will be carefully observed, while feeding back this vital information to policy makers and planners,” Herbst said.
He added that the initiative had already contributed data to the HSRC’s assessment of the impact of the pandemic on households and in future will provide more insights into the pandemic in South Africa, particularly in reference to its interaction with HIV and TB.
Professor Andrew Boulle from the Cape Town Surveillance through Healthcare Action Research Project, said they were happy to join Saprin and help pioneer a form of engaged scholarship.
“We plan to embed the node in existing community health worker services as part of the community-oriented primary care approach. This will ensure alignment between surveillance activities conducted as part of service delivery, and those required to contribute to Saprin,” Boulle said.