Marc Bosonkie, Benito Kazenza, Rawlance Ndejjo, Marie‐Claire Muyer · 10 authors
Background: The rapid spread of COVID-19 forced governments to urgently implement non-pharmaceutical measures to stop the surge. These restrictions disrupted the provision of nutrition services. This study identified challenges faced by nutrition services using the six components of the health system and preventive strategies that can strengthen nutrition interventions during future outbreaks. Methods: A multiple-case qualitative study was carried out. Purposive sampling was used for recruitment of participants. 57 key informants were selected based on their role in the Nutrition sector at different levels of the health pyramid. The interview guide incorporated nutrition leadership, financing, workforce, infrastructure and commodities, service delivery and information system. Each topic had subtopics on challenges and adaptations. All transcripts were exported to Atlas Ti v22, and thematic analysis was conducted. Results: Initially excluded from the national COVID-19 response, nutrition services were later integrated through advocacy by the National Nutrition Program. Despite limited funding, the government maintained support, and health workers adapted with flexible staffing approaches. Commodity shortages, including Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food, led to the use of locally produced substitutes. Movement restrictions and fear of infection disrupted essential services such as growth monitoring and immunization. To sustain access, mitigation strategies were implemented, including tailored education, modified weighing methods, and decentralized care. Key innovations included rapid registration with anthropometric protocols, additional service points for child health activities, double-weighing scales to reduce contact, crowd control during Growth Monitoring Promotion, community-based service delivery, and improved digital integration. Conclusions: COVID-19 disrupted all pillars of nutrition services in the DRC but also spurred innovation. Institutionalizing adaptive strategies, securing sustainable funding, and supporting local Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Food production are essential to strengthen resilience and ensure continuity of nutrition services in future health emergencies.
Tan Hui Yang Zen, Chin Bing Hong, P. Mohan, Vivek Balachandran
The propagation of misinformation has become prevalent in recent years and is one of the predominant factors for social media myths and conspiracy theories. This paper proposes and develops a solution to detect fake news and hence control misinformation broadcasting in social media. Existing solutions for detecting fake news involve either using Machine learning/AI or employing a crowdsourcing-based fact-checker to evaluate the reliability of the information. In our proposed solution - ABC-verify - we designed and developed an integrated framework combining both AI and a Proof-of-stake (PoS) smart contract algorithm for crowdsourcing to achieve better accuracy than AI-only or pure crowdsourcing. The advantage of the proposed solution is two-fold. Firstly, the AI model can continuously learn from the output of the smart contract algorithm. Secondly, the validated news that is added to the blockchain is immutable. The validators from the public Ethereum blockchain stake ERC721 tokens in exchange for a reward if the information reliability were accurate. The prediction from the AI classification model is based on a pre-trained BERT model on a dataset of 10,000 labelled Twitter datasets. The AI classification model proxies as one of the validators in the PoS algorithm. The final verdict from the smart contract is then fed back into the training dataset to improve the AI classification model and achieve better overall accuracy of 93%. Unlike traditional crowdsourcing platforms, news stored within the blockchain is immutable. Furthermore, the Ethereum blockchain is transparent, and every transaction is recorded within the blockchain, hence enabling authenticity and trust between peer-to-peer transactions.