COVID-19 in the continent’s children: UK award supports new research

30 October 2020 | Story Nobhongo Gxolo. Photo Big World Cinema on behalf of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Drakenstein Child Health Study. Read time 5 min.
Mother and child participants in the birth cohort study, the Drakenstein Child Health Study.
Mother and child participants in the birth cohort study, the Drakenstein Child Health Study.

Professor Heather Zar, the chair of the Department of Paediatrics and Child Health and the director of the South African Medical Research Council Unit on Child and Adolescent Health at the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Faculty of Health Sciences, is spearheading a research project that is one of 12 globally to receive a recent COVID-19 grant.

The National Institute for Health Research / United Kingdom Research and Innovation Global Effort on COVID-19 (NIHR/UKRI GECO) grant is a collaborative funding opportunity. Under Professor Zar as the project leader, the study will offer a unique opportunity to understand the determinants of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection and coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in children in Africa in a low-middle-income country (LMIC) context. The award will enable Zar and her team to undertake a study titled “Spectrum, determinants and long-term outcome of SARS-CoV-2 infection and disease in African children”.

The reasons children typically develop mild illness or have asymptomatic infection are poorly understood. In LMICs, where children make up a large proportion of the population, risk factors such as malnutrition, HIV exposure, tuberculosis or prior infection with endemic coronaviruses may have an impact on the risk of infection and development of COVID-19.

This project aims to investigate the spectrum of illness in African children, the risk factors for infection or disease, and the immune or inflammatory factors protecting children against SARS-CoV-2 infection or severe COVID-19 disease.

Zar is collaborating with partners at the universities of Western Australia and Southampton in the United Kingdom for this research.

COVID-19 infection in African children

“This funding provides a wonderful opportunity to better understand COVID-19 in African children in an LMIC context,” she said.

This is particularly relevant because of the high burden of pneumonia, which continues to be the major single killer of children under five years of age, due to factors such as malnutrition, smoke exposure and the high burden of infectious disease in these settings.

 

“Understanding why children are only mildly affected may be key to developing new strategies to prevent or ameliorate illness.”

“However, this hasn’t occurred with COVID-19,” said Zar, who is an affiliate member of the Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine (IDM) at UCT. Surprisingly, children in LMICs and globally are predominantly only mildly affected by COVID-19, with relatively few severe cases or deaths occurring in young children. The current project will investigate whether prior infection with other organisms (including seasonal coronaviruses) protects children against severe disease through development of immunity.

“Understanding why children are only mildly affected may be key to developing new strategies to prevent or ameliorate illness,” said Zar.

Drakenstein Child Health Study

Whitney Barnett, the project’s programme manager, said that this funding will offer researchers the additional focus of investigating COVID-19 across different settings, ranging from communities to hospitals. SARS-CoV-2 infection will be investigated in children who are hospitalised with pneumonia as well as in children who are part of the population-based Drakenstein Child Health Study (DCHS), a novel African birth cohort study, which is led by Zar.

The DCHS has comprehensively investigated the early-life determinants of child health, and developmental pathways to health or disease from pregnancy through childhood – so it provides a unique platform to study COVID-19 in children, and the impact of the pandemic on child health.

 

“It is especially important to be able to do this study here because children make up a high proportion of the population.”

“The DCHS also bridges the intersection of infectious diseases and the emergence of non-communicable diseases,” Zar said.

“It is especially important to be able to do this study here because children make up a high proportion of the population, and risk factors such as malnutrition, pollution, poverty and a high burden of infections may contribute to their vulnerability to developing illness.”

She added that the context of the DCHS offers further understanding of COVID-19-related childhood illness, including the protective or risk factors for infection or disease that have been carefully measured from the antenatal period through childhood, and the role of inflammation.

As a child health specialist in respiratory illness, Zar said that this will inform future research and healthcare approaches and provide “a unique opportunity to generate new knowledge, identify risk factors for illness and develop novel strategies for prevention and treatment”.


Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Please view the republishing articles page for more information.


UCT’s response to COVID-19

COVID-19 is a global pandemic that caused President Cyril Ramaphosa to declare a national disaster in South Africa on 15 March 2020 and to implement a national lockdown from 26 March 2020. UCT is taking the threat of infection in our university community extremely seriously, and this page will be updated with the latest COVID-19 information. Please note that the information on this page is subject to change depending on current lockdown regulations.

Minister of Health, Dr Joe Phaahla, has in June 2022 repealed some of South Africa’s remaining COVID-19 regulations: namely, sections 16A, 16B and 16C of the Regulations Relating to the Surveillance and the Control of Notifiable Medical Conditions under the National Health Act. We are now no longer required to wear masks or limit gatherings. Venue restrictions and checks for travellers coming into South Africa have now also been removed.

In July 2022, the University of Cape Town (UCT) revised its approach to managing the COVID-19 pandemic on UCT campuses in 2022.
Read the latest document available on the UCT policies web page.

 

Campus communications

 
2022

Adjusting to our new environment 16:50, 23 June 2022
VC Open Lecture and other updates 17:04, 13 April 2022
Feedback from UCT Council meeting of 12 March 2022 09:45, 18 March 2022
UCT Council
March 2022 graduation celebration 16:45, 8 March 2022
Report on the meeting of UCT Council of 21 February 2022 19:30, 21 February 2022
UCT Council
COVID-19 management 2022 11:55, 14 February 2022
Return to campus arrangements 2022 11:15, 4 February 2022

UCT Community of Hope Vaccination Centre

On Wednesday, 20 July, staff from the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Faculty of Health Sciences came together with representatives from the Western Cape Government at the UCT Community of Hope Vaccination Centre at Forest Hill Residence to acknowledge the centre’s significance in the fight against COVID-19 and to thank its staff for their contributions. The centre opened on 1 September 2021 with the aim of providing quality vaccination services to UCT staff, students and the nearby communities, as well as to create an opportunity for medical students from the Faculty of Health Sciences to gain practical public health skills. The vaccination centre ceased operations on Friday, 29 July 2022.

With the closure of the UCT Community of Hope Vaccination Centre, if you still require access to a COVID-19 vaccination site please visit the CovidComms SA website to find an alternative.

 

“After almost a year of operation, the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Community of Hope Vaccination Centre, located at the Forest Hill residence complex in Mowbray, will close on Friday, 29 July 2022. I am extremely grateful and proud of all staff, students and everyone involved in this important project.”
– Vice-Chancellor Prof Mamokgethi Phakeng

With the closure of the UCT Community of Hope Vaccination Centre, if you still require access to a COVID-19 vaccination site please visit the CovidComms SA website to find an alternative.


Thank You UCT Community

Frequently asked questions

 

Global Citizen Asks: Are COVID-19 Vaccines Safe & Effective?

UCT’s Institute of Infectious Disease and Molecular Medicine (IDM) collaborated with Global Citizen, speaking to trusted experts to dispel vaccine misinformation.



If you have further questions about the COVID-19 vaccine check out the FAQ produced by the Desmond Tutu Health Foundation (DTHF). The DTHF has developed a dedicated chat function where you can ask your vaccine-related questions on the bottom right hand corner of the website.

IDM YouTube channel | IDM website
 

 

“As a contact university, we look forward to readjusting our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes in 2023 as the COVID-19 regulations have been repealed.”
– Prof Harsha Kathard, Acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor: Teaching and Learning

We are continuing to monitor the situation and we will be updating the UCT community regularly – as and when there are further updates. If you are concerned or need more information, students can contact the Student Wellness Service on 021 650 5620 or 021 650 1271 (after hours), while staff can contact 021 650 5685.

 

TOP