Religious leaders' nuanced views on birth spacing and contraceptives in Sierra Leone - qualitative insights.

Background: Sierra Leone is a religiously diverse country, with Christianity and Islam being the dominant faiths. This religious landscape plays a significant role in shaping attitudes towards family planning and contraceptives. We examined religious leaders' knowledge of family planning and modern contraceptive methods.

Adolescent girls' perceptions of the COVID-19 infodemic in Sierra Leone: a qualitative study in urban, peri-urban and rural Sierra Leone.

Objective: This study aimed to identify the primary sources of COVID-19 health information for adolescent girls in Sierra Leone and evaluate their perceived trustworthiness and influence on their behaviour.

Design: Using a convenience sampling strategy grounded in the social cognitive theory, the study explored adolescents' navigation and appraisal of health information sources, their understanding of COVID-19, and the impact of societal and observational influences on their health beliefs and actions. Data analysis involved thematic analysis using NVivo V.

From policy to practice: a qualitive study exploring the role of community health workers during the COVID-19 response in Sierra Leone.

Background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, community health workers (CHWs) were required to help their communities respond to the outbreak in Sierra Leone. The Government of Sierra Leone released a policy that provided an interim guidance on the specific role of CHWs during the pandemic including support required to maintain continuity of routine and essential services during the COVID-19 response. This study explores how CHWs adapted their roles during the COVID-19 pandemic in Sierra Leone and the support they received from families, communities, and the health system.

Factors influencing adherence to antiretroviral therapy from the experience of people living with HIV and their healthcare providers in Sierra Leone: a qualitative study.

Background: Antiretroviral therapy (ART) is the primary mode of treatment for Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV). It slows disease progression and reduces the spread of infection. HIV treatment is also known to require a high level of adherence of over 90% to achieve good treatment outcomes and viral load suppression.

Incidence and risk factors of surgical site infections and related antibiotic resistance in Freetown, Sierra Leone: a prospective cohort study.

Background: There is limited information on surgical site infections (SSI) and the related antibiotic resistance needed to guide their management and prevention in Sierra Leone. In this study, we aimed to establish the incidence and risk factors of SSI and the related antibiotic resistance among adults attending a tertiary hospital, and a secondary health facility in Freetown, Sierra Leone.

Methods: This is a prospective cohort study designed to collect data from adult (18 years or older) patients who attended elective and emergency surgeries at two hospitals in Freetown between February and July, 2021.

Identifying challenges and recommendations for advancing global mental health implementation research: A key informant study of the National Institute of Mental Health Scale-Up Hubs.

Objective: This study explored perspectives of researchers working with the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Scale-Up Hubs, consisting of research partnerships for scaling up mental health interventions in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), to: 1) identify common barriers to conducting impactful research on the implementation of evidence-based mental health services; and 2) provide recommendations to overcome these implementation challenges.

Methods: A sequential qualitative approach was employed. First, an open-ended survey was distributed to the 10 Scale-Up Hubs and NIMH program staff asking informants to identify challenges in conducting mental health implementation research in LMICs.

Adapting and implementing training, guidelines and treatment cards to improve primary care-based hypertension and diabetes management in a fragile context: results of a feasibility study in Sierra Leone.

Background: Sierra Leone, a fragile country, is facing an increasingly significant burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Facilitated by an international partnership, a project was developed to adapt and pilot desktop guidelines and other clinical support tools to strengthen primary care-based hypertension and diabetes diagnosis and management in Bombali district, Sierra Leone between 2018 and 2019. This study assesses the feasibility of the project through analysis of the processes of intervention adaptation and development, delivery of training and implementation of a care improvement package and preliminary outcomes of the intervention.

A cross-sectional study on caregivers' perspective of the quality of life and adherence of paediatric HIV patients to highly active antiretroviral therapy.

Background: Poor compliance to highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) can result in the poor quality of life in children living with Human immunodeficiency virus/Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) because of low plasma drug concentration and the possibility of drug resistance. This study evaluates the response of caregivers for determination of adherence and the four quality of life domains in children (aged 14 years and under) on HAART.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study of 188 children, each accompanied by their caregivers at Ola During Children's Hospital and Makeni Government Hospital between September and November 2016.

Opportunities and challenges for delivering non-communicable disease management and services in fragile and post-conflict settings: perceptions of policy-makers and health providers in Sierra Leone.

Background: The growing burden of non-communicable diseases in low- and middle-income countries presents substantive challenges for health systems. This is also the case in fragile, post-conflict and post-Ebola Sierra Leone, where NCDs represent an increasingly significant disease burden (around 30% of adult men and women have raised blood pressure). To date, documentation of health system challenges and opportunities for NCD prevention and control is limited in such settings.

Clinical Surveillance and Evaluation of Suspected Ebola Cases in a Vaccine Trial During an Ebola Epidemic: The Sierra Leone Trial to Introduce a Vaccine Against Ebola.

ClinicalTrials.gov [NCT02378753] and Pan African Clinical Trials Registry [PACTR201502001037220].

Evolution of policies on human resources for health: opportunities and constraints in four post-conflict and post-crisis settings.

Background: Few studies look at policy making in the health sector in the aftermath of a conflict or crisis and even fewer specifically focus on Human Resources for Health, which is a critical domain for health sector performance. The main objective of the article is to shed light on the patterns and drivers of post-conflict policy-making. In particular, we explore whether the post -conflict period offers increased chances for the opening of 'windows for opportunity' for change and reform and the potential to reset health systems.

Retention of health workers in rural Sierra Leone: findings from life histories.

Background: Sierra Leone has faced a shortage and maldistribution of staff in its post-conflict period. This long-standing challenge is now exacerbated by the systemic shock and damage wrought by Ebola. This study aimed to investigate the importance of different motivation factors in rural areas in Sierra Leone and thus to contribute to better decisions on financial and non-financial incentive packages, here and in similar contexts.

Diacylglycerol acyltransferase 2 acts upstream of diacylglycerol acyltransferase 1 and utilizes nascent diglycerides and de novo synthesized fatty acids in HepG2 cells.

The two diacylglycerol acyltransferases, DGAT1 and DGAT2, are known to have non-redundant functions, in spite of catalysing the same reaction and being present in the same cell types. The basis for this distinctiveness, which is reflected in the very different phenotypes of Dgat1(-/-) and Dgat2(-/-) mice, has not been resolved. Using selective inhibitors of human DGAT1 and DGAT2 on HepG2 cells and gene silencing, we show that, although DGAT2 activity accounts for a modest fraction (< 20%) of overall cellular DGAT activity, inhibition of DGAT2 activity specifically inhibits (and is rate-limiting for) the incorporation of de novo synthesized fatty acids and of glycerol into cellular and secreted triglyceride to a much greater extent than it affects the incorporation of exogenously added oleate.

Evidence that diacylglycerol acyltransferase 1 (DGAT1) has dual membrane topology in the endoplasmic reticulum of HepG2 cells.

Triacylglycerol (TAG) synthesis and secretion are important functions of the liver that have major impacts on health, as overaccumulation of TAG within the liver (steatosis) or hypersecretion of TAG within very low density lipoproteins (VLDL) both have deleterious metabolic consequences. Two diacylglycerol acyltransferases (DGATs 1 and 2) can catalyze the final step in the synthesis of TAG from diacylglycerol, which has been suggested to play an important role in the transfer of the glyceride moiety across the endoplasmic reticular membrane for (re)synthesis of TAG on the lumenal aspect of the endoplasmic reticular (ER) membrane (Owen, M., Corstorphine, C.