How Ugandan research shaped covid-19 treatment

Local solutions, global impact

In August 2021, Dr Bruce Kirenga and his team at the Makerere University Lung Institute published a pivotal study in BMJ Open Respiratory Research on the efficacy of convalescent plasma for covid-19 treatment in Uganda.

The study’s findings on the limited efficacy of convalescent plasma (CP) helped shape major treatment guidelines. In Therapeutics and COVID-19: Living guideline, the World Health Organization (WHO) strongly advises against CP for all severity levels of covid-19 due to limited benefit and potential safety risks. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) similarly recommends against CP outside of clinical trials, except in rare cases involving immunocompromised patients. The European Medicines Agency (EMA) also discourages routine use, supporting a shift towards more effective therapies like antivirals and monoclonal antibodies.

Where most publications in the biomedical and clinical sciences field receive only two to three citations, this study has far exceeded that benchmark. BMJ Impact Analytics shows 46 citations in health policy, eight in clinical guidance, and uptake across five countries. Such reach underlines its role in shaping evidence informed global health practice.

Bruce Kirenga standing in hospital outfit

“The findings from this study… provided the scientific community with sufficient evidence against use of convalescent plasma to treat COVID-19 and consideration of other treatment options.”

Dr. Bruce J Kirenga
Makerere University Lung Institute, Uganda

Dr Kirenga and his team chose open access to ensure their research reached a global audience without barriers, facilitating faster dissemination of critical findings. Making their work freely available enabled healthcare professionals and policymakers in LMICs to access the latest evidence on affordable and accessible therapies.

“Open access publishing ensures the publications are available to everyone, including scientists and policymakers in low-resourced settings.”

Impact at a glance *

  • 32 citations – 11% of its citations have been received in the past two years

  • Informed 2 clinical guidelines and 24 policy documents

  • 53 Altmetric Attention score – sits within the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric

Expanding access to research in low and middle-income countries

For over 20 years, BMJ Group has championed underrepresented voices in research. Since introducing full article processing charge (APC) waivers in 2022, we’ve granted 70% more waivers to authors from low and middle-income countries (LMICs) compared to the three years before the policy began. In the past year alone, nearly 10% of the open access research we published came from LMIC authors.

We also participate in the HINARI programme, part of the Research4Life (R4L) initiative, which provides free or low-cost access to its medical journals for institutions in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This partnership helps over 11,000 institutions across 125 countries access the best available, evidence-based medical content to support research, education, and clinical practice in these regions.

Nearly 95% of all LMIC-originated research was published open access this year

Up from 36% in 2021 and 56% in 2022, closing the knowledge gap.*

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