Training of health care workers and laboratory

professionals on the use of SARS CoV-2 antigen based

rapid diagnostic test- WHO Somalia experience
Act-A joint session of PHL knowledge sharing webinars
16 March 2022
COVID-19 Epidemiological situation
Cases: Between week 1 and 8, 2022
• Daily average cases decreased from 88 to 7
• Weekly AR decreased from 4.1 to 0.3 per
100,000 pop.
Deaths: low incidence of deaths, Between week 1
and 8, 2022
• Daily average of 1-2 deaths
• Overall CFR: 5.1%
Tests: low level testing 0.3 per 1000 pop per week
VOC: Alpha, Beta and Delta VOC, Omicron has not
been confirmed yet, no in-country sequencing
capacity yet, but the country is in process of
establishing sequencing capacity
Hospitalization and ICU admissions: 5587 patients
Vaccination : Low coverage ( fully =6.8% pop,
partial= 6.7% pop)
Laboratory Diagnostics
• Before COVID-19 pandemic Somalia had no PCR laboratory
• Samples used to be shipped to neighboring country for confirmatory testing
• First COVID-19 cases was confirmed on 16 March 2022
• By May 2022, the FMOH with the support from WHO established 3 PCR
laboratories in Mogadishu, Garowe and Hargeisa
• As of today, 4 of the 7 states of Somalia have no PCR testing capacity, access to
PCR testing is limited. (however, WHO planned to established by 1st Qrt 2022)
• Somalia is also setting up genetic sequencing capacity in three major laboratories.
• Somalia started to use SARS Cov-2 Ag-based rapid diagnostic testing in March
2021
SARS-COV-2 Ag-based rapid diagnostic test
rollout in Somalia
• WHO Somalia in collaboration with FIND implemented Ag-RDT roll out in Somalia
between July to October 2021.
• Somalia has 110 districts with 15M estimated population and very limited access
to the PCR labroratories because of fragile road network and security.
Focus was on:
• SARS-CoV-2 Ag-RDT training: Health care works, laboratory technicians and
surveillance officers
• Development of SARS-CoV-2 testing protocol
• Development of national testing strategy
• Sensitization of health care workers and communities on use of SARS-CoV-2 Ag-
RDT to improve access for testing.
• Distribution of Ag-RDT kits
Achievements
• 156 health care workers trained
on SARS CoV-2 Ag-RDT procedure
• Training was given using the
WHO-FIND standard training
material adapted to Somalia context
• 67,000 Ag-RDT were distributed support testing in rural areas
• 43,875 suspected cases were tested using Ag-RDT (17% of the total
samples tested)
• 6,173 cases were detected suing Ag-RDT, 59% of them were from
areas where there is no access to PCR test
 Achievements…..
• SARS-COV-2 testing protocol developed
and disseminated- guides health care workers,
surveillance officers and laboratory technicians
involved with COVID-19 surveillance and testing
• National testing strategy developed
and disseminated- helps to improve planning,
implementation and monitoring of COVID-19 testing in the country
Challenges
• No national capacity and experience in Molecular testing before
COVID-19
• Logistical constraints in sample collection, shipment and result
trucking
• Security constraints to access all locations in Somalia
• Limited lab infrastructure and trained human resource
• Global delay in supply chain system that affected expansion of the
PCR laboratories
Lessons learned
• The use of Ag-RDT has improved access to COVID-19 testing in remote
areas of Somalia
• Training of HCWs should be scaled up across all districts where
community-based surveillance is being implemented.
• Provision of and access to Ag-RDT test kits by HCWs across all districts
where community-based surveillance is being implemented should be
scaled up.
• The development and dissemination of Ag-RDT testing protocol
contributed to improve the skill and knowledge of the health care
workers on proper utilization of Ag-RDT tests.
Lessons learned
• The development and dissemination of national SARS CoV-2 strategy
enabled to improve planning, implementation and monitoring of
COVID-19 testing and lab capacity.
• Data collection, compilation and reporting on the use of Ag-RDT is key
and there is a need to provide support to enhance laboratory
information system as part of the Ag-RDT roll out.
Thank You