Aetiology of viral hepatitis among jaundiced patients presenting to a tertiary hospital in Ghana.

Background: Viral hepatitis continues to play significant role in causing morbidity and mortality in sub-Saharan Africa. Apart from the few population based studies available, not many have investigated the burden of these viruses in jaundiced patients. Among the few studies, hepatitis E is the least studied among jaundiced patients.

Health care workers indicate ill preparedness for Ebola Virus Disease outbreak in Ashanti Region of Ghana.

Background: The recent Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) epidemic that hit some countries in West Africa underscores the need to train front line high-risk health workers on disease prevention skills. Although Ghana did not record (and is yet to) any case, and several health workers have received numerous training schemes, there is no record of any study that assessed preparedness of healthcare workers (HCWS) regarding EVD and any emergency prone disease in Ghana. We therefore conducted a hospital based cross sectional study involving 101 HCWs from two facilities in Kumasi, Ghana to assess the level of preparedness of HCWs to respond to any possible EVD.

Insecticide resistance in malaria vectors in Kumasi, Ghana.

Background: There have been recent reports of surge in resistance to insecticides in pocketed areas in Ghana necessitating the need for information about local vector populations and their resistance to the insecticides approved by the World Health Organization (WHO). We therefore studied a population of malaria vectors from Kumasi in the Ashanti Region of Ghana and their resistance to currently used insecticides. We conducted susceptibility tests to the four major classes of insecticides by collecting larvae of anopheline mosquitoes from several communities in the region.

Genotypic characterisation of human papillomavirus infections among persons living with HIV infection; a case-control study in Kumasi, Ghana.

Objectives: The objective of this study is to describe the burden of human papillomavirus (HPV) infection among women living with HIV and non-infected women in Ghana.

Methods: A case-control study was conducted involving 107 women living with HIV aged between 18 and 59 years (cases) and 100 non-HIV-infected apparently healthy women (controls) who were recruited from the Kumasi South Hospital, from July to December, 2014. Cervicovaginal swabs were taken from study participants to characterise 28 high- and low-risk HPV genotypes using a multiplex real-time PCR.

Palp ratio as a field identification tool for two members of the Anopheles gambiae complex in Ghana (A. melas and A. gambiae).

Background: The Anopheles gambiae Giles complex is the most widely studied and the most important insect vector group. We explored the use of the palp ratio method as a field tool to identify A. melas and A.