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Article History

Received: 15 August 2023

Accepted: 1 November 2023

First Online: 9 November 2023

Declarations

:

: The study was approved by the College of Medicine Research and Ethics Committee (COMREC) P.01/21/3233 before the study implementation. Permission was also sought from the Kamuzu Central Hospital management. The study was performed per the principles of the Declaration of the Helsinki (2008), Good Clinical Practice (GCP) guidelines and in line with the laws of Malawi. Written Informed consent was sought from all participants before collecting the study information and blood samples from them. Participants had the right to withdraw or withdraw their data from the study at any stage without stating a reason. Any information or samples from a withdrawn participant were to be destroyed. To ensure privacy and confidentiality, all participant records were deidentified at the point of sample collection. Only the investigators had access to the identification key. The deidentified records were stored on a password-protected computer. Hard-copy records were stored in a locked filing cabinet.

: Not applicable.

: The authors declare no competing interests.