In the original article, Johan von Schreeb's last name was spelled incorrectly. It is correct as reflected here.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: In an attempt to assess the effects of the Ebola viral disease (EVD) on hospital functions in Sierra Leone, the aim of this study was to evaluate changes in provisions of surgery and non-Ebola admissions during the first year of the EVD outbreak.
Methods: All hospitals in Sierra Leone known to perform inpatient surgery were assessed for non-Ebola admissions, volume of surgery, caesarean deliveries and inguinal hernia repairs between January 2014 and May 2015, which was a total of 72 weeks. Accumulated weekly data were gathered from readily available hospital records at bi-weekly visits during the peak of the outbreak from September 2014 to May 2015.
ClinicalTrials.gov [NCT02378753] and Pan African Clinical Trials Registry [PACTR201502001037220].
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: In low- and middle-income countries, there is a gap between the need for surgery and its equitable provision, and a lack of proxy indicators to estimate this gap. Sierra Leone is a West African country with close to three million children. It is unknown to what extent the surgical needs of these children are met.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe 2014-2015 West African outbreak of Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) claimed the lives of more than 11,000 people and infected over 27,000 across seven countries. Traditional approaches to containing EVD proved inadequate and new approaches for controlling the outbreak were required. The Ministry of Health & Sanitation and King's Sierra Leone Partnership developed a model for Ebola Holding Units (EHUs) at Government Hospitals in the capital city Freetown.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn October 2014, the College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences of the University of Sierra Leone, the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health and Sanitation, and CDC joined the global effort to accelerate assessment and availability of candidate Ebola vaccines and began planning for the Sierra Leone Trial to Introduce a Vaccine against Ebola (STRIVE). STRIVE was an individually randomized controlled phase II/III trial to evaluate efficacy, immunogenicity, and safety of the recombinant vesicular stomatitis virus Ebola vaccine (rVSV-ZEBOV). The study population was health care and frontline workers in select chiefdoms of the five most affected districts in Sierra Leone.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Limited data exist on surgical providers and their scope of practice in low-income countries (LICs). The aim of this study was to assess the distribution and productivity of all surgical providers in an LIC, and to evaluate correlations between the surgical workforce availability, productivity, rates, and volume of surgery at the district and hospital levels.
Methods: Data on surgeries and surgical providers from 56 (93.
Background: Scope of practice and in-country distribution of surgical providers in low-income countries remains insufficiently described. Through a nationwide comprehensive inventory of surgical procedures and providers in Sierra Leone, we aimed to present the geographic distribution, medical training, and productivity of surgical providers in a low-income country.
Methods: Following exhaustive sampling, a total of 60 facilities performing surgery in Sierra Leone 2012 was identified.
Background: Surgical services are essential components of health-care systems. Monitoring of surgical activity is important, but resource demanding. Simpler tools to estimate surgical volume, particularly in low-income countries, are needed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Understanding a country's baseline operative actors and capacity is critical to improving the quality of services and outcomes. The aim of this study was to describe all operative providers and national operative production, to evaluate district and nationwide population rates for operations, and to estimate unmet operative need in Sierra Leone.
Methods: A nationwide, exhaustive, retrospective, facility-based study of operative actors and surgical procedures was performed in Sierra Leone.
Background: The indirect effects of the Ebola epidemic on health service function may be significant but is not known. The aim of this study was to quantify to what extent admission rates and surgery has changed at health facilities providing such care in Sierra Leone during the time of the Ebola epidemic.
Methods: Weekly data on facility inpatient admissions and surgery from admission and surgical theatre register books were retrospectively retrieved during September and October.