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Article History

Received: 9 May 2026

Accepted: 24 June 2026

First Online: 13 July 2026

Declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate: The study was approved by the Provincial Ethics Committee of the Tshopo Provincial Health Division (701/FBL/DPS/TSHOPO/SEC/0173/2023) and the National Health Ethics Committee (531/CNES/BN/PMMF/2024). It was conducted in accordance with the International Council for Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Pharmaceuticals for Human Use Guideline for Good Clinical Practice and the Declaration of Helsinki [ ]. The trial has been retrospectively registered with the Pan African Clinical Trials Registry on 08 October 2024 under the identifier PACTR202410672612184|| . Confidentiality was ensured by maintaining anonymity throughout data collection, processing and analysis. The study's objectives and procedures were explained to the patients beforehand.

Consent for publication: All participants signed an informed consent form before enrolling in the study. Participants could withdraw at any time, without justification and without affecting the quality of care. The principal investigator could withdraw a participant upon the participant’s explicit request. Prior to revealing the results, each patient was required to sign a consent form authorising the publication of de-identified data. Consent for the publication of identifiable images or other personal or clinical details of participants that might compromise anonymity is not relevant for this study.

Competing interests: The authors declare no competing interests.