Assessment of the Public Health Laboratory Capacity - Sierra Leone, 2021.

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.

A retrospective study revealing complex viral diversity and a substantial burden of HPV infection in SARS-CoV-2 positive individuals, Sierra Leone.

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.

Dissemination of Antibiotic Resistance Genes Among Patients with Diarrhea - Freetown, Sierra Leone, 2018.

What 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.

Multiple introduced lineages and the single native lineage co-driving the four waves of the COVID-19 pandemic in West Africa.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a vast burden on public health and socioeconomics in West Africa, but the epidemic situation is unclear. Therefore, we conducted a retrospective analysis of the positive rate, death rate, and diversity of SARS-CoV-2. As of March 31, 2022, a total of 894,813 cases of COVID-19 have been recorded, with 12,028 deaths, both of which were distributed in all 16 countries.

Epidemiological Trends of Coronavirus Disease 2019 in Sierra Leone From March 2020 to October 2021.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a serious public health challenge the world over, has led to significant health concerns in Sierra Leone. In the present study, epidemic indices, such as the number of cases, positivity rate, reproduction rate (R0), case fatality rate (CFR), age, and sex, were used to characterize the epidemiological trends of COVID-19. As of October 31, 2021, a total of 6,398 cases and 121 related deaths had been confirmed.

Soil-transmitted helminth infection in school age children in Sierra Leone after a decade of preventive chemotherapy interventions.

Background: Baseline mapping of soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections among school age children (SAC) in 2008-2009 found high or moderate prevalence in 13 of the 14 districts in Sierra Leone. Following these surveys, mass drug administration (MDA) of mebendazole/albendazole was conducted biannually at national level targeting pre-school children (PSC) aged 12-59 months and intermittently at sub-national level targeting SAC. In addition, MDA with ivermectin and albendazole for eliminating lymphatic filariasis (LF) has been conducted nationwide since 2010 targeting individuals over 5 years of age.

Schistosomiasis in School Age Children in Sierra Leone After 6 Years of Mass Drug Administration With Praziquantel.

Historic data and baseline surveys showed schistosomiasis as highly/moderately endemic in 7 of 14 districts in Sierra Leone, justifying annual/biennial mass drug administration (MDA) with praziquantel. MDA commenced in 2009 and reported treatment coverage had been above the World Health Organization recommended 75% of target population. Assessment in 2012 showed significant reduction in infection.

Serological Investigation of Laboratory-Confirmed and Suspected Ebola Virus Disease Patients During the Late Phase of the Ebola Outbreak in Sierra Leone.

This study aimed to investigate the serological characteristics of Ebola virus (EBOV) infection during the late phase of the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone. In total, 877 blood samples from 694 suspected Ebola virus disease (EVD) cases assessed from March to December 2015, were analyzed via real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for viral RNA and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and Luminex to detect antibodies against EBOV. Viral load and EBOV-specific IgM/IgG titers displayed a declining trend during March to December 2015.