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Introduction: Electrocardiographic (ECG) abnormalities are increasingly being reported among people living with HIV (PLWH). However, the exact prevalence of ECG abnormalities among PLWH in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), a region with one of the highest burdens of HIV, is not known. Through a systematic review, we determined the prevalence and patterns of ECG abnormalities among PLWH in SSA., Methods: We conducted a search in online databases including EMBASE, MEDLINE, CINAHL and Research for Life for studies published between 1st January 2000 and 31st December 2020. Studies reporting any form of ECG abnormalities published in English were screened and reviewed for eligibility. Retrieved studies were assessed for validity using the modified Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Data was summarized qualitatively, and ECG abnormalities were further subcategorized into rate, conduction, and rhythm abnormalities as well as atrial and ventricular enlargements., Results: We retrieved seventeen of the 219 studies assessed for eligibility published between 2001 and 2020, with a total of 2,572 eligible participants. The mean age of the participants ranged between 6.8 years and 58.6 years. Of the 17 studies, 8 (47%) were case-control, 6 (35.3%) cross-sectional and 3 (17.6%) were cohort in design. Thirteen studies were conducted in the adult population while four were conducted in the pediatric population. The prevalence of ECG abnormalities ranged from 10% to 81% and 6.7% to 26.5% in the adult and pediatric population respectively. Among studies done in the adult population, conduction abnormalities were the most reported (9 studies) with a prevalence ranging from 3.4% to 53.5%. In the pediatric population, rate abnormalities were the most reported (4 studies) with a prevalence ranging from 3.9% to 20.9%. The heterogeneity in results could be attributed to the absence of uniform criteria to define ECG abnormalities., Conclusion: Our findings highlight a high prevalence of ECG abnormalities among PLWH in SSA. Consideration of ECG in the comprehensive evaluation of cardiac dysfunction among PLWH in SSA maybe warranted., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist., (Copyright: © 2023 Semulimi et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.)

Introduction: High quality PhD training in sub-Saharan Africa is important to strengthen research evidence to advance development and health. Training a critical mass of independent investigators capable of original scientific research requires strong mentorship, research environments, and international networks. We sought to iteratively improve a PhD training model in Uganda through systems capacity building., Methods: PhD students were selected through a rigorous competitive application and selection process, which included a written proposal and a face-to-face panel interview. The program provided administrative support, paid tuition fees, tools (space, equipment, research money), skills (short research courses on study design, biostatistics, manuscript and grant writing), and infrastructure (finance, grants management support, and lab infrastructure). Guidance to identify local and international mentorship was also provided in addition to two to three group meetings per year where data was presented and progress assessed by the program leaders in addition to available local mentors., Results: Seventeen PhD students were selected, and fifteen will complete training through the MEPI-MESAU program. To date, 60% have completed, including 2 students who started 2 years into the program. So far, 169 publications have been published in the peer-reviewed literature. Our PhD students have supervised and mentored 65 Master's students, which illustrates the cascade effect of PhD training on the academic medical school environment., Conclusions: The systems capacity building approach to PhD training is an efficient and productive training model that allowed strong outputs at lower cost and with relatively few additional mentors to rapidly achieve a critical mass of independent scientists able to conduct original research and mentor others., Competing Interests: The authors have no competing interests to declare., (© 2018 The Author(s). This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. See http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.)