A multicenter cross-sectional study was conducted, between May and July 2021 before any anti-Covid-19 vaccination program implementation, among 720 staff working in six hospitals in the province of North Kivu in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.The aim of the study was to determine the seroprevalence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies.Individual data on socio-demographic and professional parameters and wearing mask were collected on the basis of a standard form. A blood sample was taken for qualitative determination of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies using immuno-chromatographic “Panbio COVID-19 IgG/IgM Device (25T)” kits.The overall IgG/IgM sero-prevalence was 32.9% (n = 720). This seroprevalence among hospital staff was not significantly associated with their age, gender, professional category, department to which they were assigned in the hospital, or location in a rural or urban setting of their hospitals, nor to the systematic wearing of masks.Among hospital staff who reported contact with a Covid-19 patient, seroprevalence was twice as high at service on the workplace 32.6% (n = 282) [(PR (95% CI)], [2.30 (1.46 – 2.95)] (p = 0.001).In conclusion, the anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies seropositivity level among service providers in hospitals in North Kivu province in Eastern DRC is high and that contamination seems more than half as frequent in a professional hospital environment as at the level of the family unit.

Introduction: In connection with the reform of the intermediate level of the health system in the DRC, this article describes the perceptions of health district teams, regarding to intermediate health level support, in North Kivu province. Methodology: This descriptive cross-sectional study conducted a self-administered questionnaire survey of senior staff in 34 health districts in North Kivu. The collected data was encoded and analyzed using SPSS version 26 software. Results: More than 85% of health district managers (29/34 districts) view positively the support and coaching at the intermediate level, in terms of the adequacy of the accompanying object, the gradient of the competences of the supervisors, the capacity building, the support for problem-solving and the progress on the path of revitalization of health districts. On the other hand, these perceptions are nuanced about the availability of framers, the frequency of accompanying visits, the juxtaposition of these visits on other activities and the effects on the use of services and the protection of users from financial risks. These perceptions do not vary by gender, age, occupational categories, and seniority in function and within the health district (p>0.05). Discussion and conclusion: These results show the value of more coherence, proactivity and responsiveness in support and reform of the intermediate level, to strengthen its impact on the performance of health district teams.

Introduction : The organizational model of health in the Democratic Republic of Congo is based on primary health care. Overall, the organization of this system in urban areas still depend on the one of rural areas where public health facilities predominate. Only data from these integates facilities are taken into consideration for the evaluation of utilization services. In this context, in cities where private health facilities proliferate, the level of use is still considered low. Methodology : Data were analyzed in relation to the curative service utilization of all functional health facilities in the eastern DRC city of Goma in order to estimate the overall health coverage for the year 2017 and its contribution in monitoring progress towards universal health coverage. Results : Overall utilization of curative services was 0.61 new case per capita. In this global utilization, the contribution of integrated health facilities in the health system was only 18.7% (n = 579,555). More than 75% of this utilization was covered by private health facilities. But in thses private health facilities, quality was poor. Conclusion : In urban areas, most medical supply service was provided by private health facilities, their non consideration does not make it possible to correctly assess either their use by the population nor the progress towards universal health coverage. In a context of increasing urbanization, the accreditation of private health facilities could be an innovative strategy for their integration, improve quality and good monitoring progress towards universal health coverage.