Publications by authors named "Alie Brima Tia"
What Is Already Known About This Topic?: Public health laboratories (PHLs) are critical for effectively identifying, detecting, preventing, and responding to emerging and reemerging infectious diseases. Following the 2014 Ebola outbreak, Sierra Leone implemented a national laboratory strategic plan (2015-2020) aimed at creating, strengthening, and maintaining laboratory capacities for detecting, assessing, notifying, and reporting incidents, with a requirement to review PHL capabilities every five years.
What Is Added By This Report?: This study assessed the comprehensive capacity and personnel status of PHLs in Sierra Leone using a standardized assessment tool following the implementation of the 2015 National Laboratory Strategic Plan.
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the critical role of sequencing technology in disease control and outbreak response. However, resource limitations and challenging environments often impede such efforts in low and middle-income countries. This study aimed to investigate the spectrum of viral co-infections, particularly with human viral pathogens, in SARS-CoV-2 positive individuals in Sierra Leone using metagenomic sequencing, evaluating the feasibility of utilizing this technology for epidemiological and evolutionary surveillance of pathogens related to public health in low-income environments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWhat Is Already Known About This Topic?: Antibiotic resistance (AR) is a serious public health threat worldwide. However, the AR and antibiotic resistance genes (ARGs) data from West Africa, especially from Sierra Leone, are limited.
What Is Added By This Report?: The study revealed ARGs' common dissemination, and multiplex antibiotic resistance genes in one sample.