Introduction: Faced with the growing phenomenon of urbanization and the need to adapt health services to the urban context, this article describes the catchment area and the profile of the patient who attended the two urban medical health centers (CSMU) set up, as part of an action research, in the city of Goma, Eastern Democratic Republic of (DRC). Methods: This is a retrospective observational study based on registry and patient record data from April 2019 to December 2021. Data collected on tablets were analyzed using statistical software STATA 14.1. Results: 14.433 patients attended both CSMUs during the period. Both CSMUs experienced attraction beyond the health areas of implantation (26.7%). The profile of the patient is predominantly female (62.3%), educated (70.5% graduated at least in the humanities), adult (44.9% aged 18 to 49), registered with the CSMU in 19.6% of cases. The reason for consultations is dominated by infectious (55.2%) and parasitic (10.6%) diseases, followed by chronic diseases (26.9%) and trauma (2.6%) (p <0.001). In more than 90% of cases, the care involves 3 different skills (medical, nurses and social worker) of the multidisciplinary team. Discussion and Conclusion: The catchment area and patient profile found show the interest of rethinking the way urban health services are organized in order to better meet the expectations of urban populations.
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.