Tuberculosis patients with diabetes co-morbidity experience reduced complex clearance.

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the impact of diabetes mellitus (DM) on tuberculosis (TB) treatment response using bacterial clearance as a surrogate marker.

Method: We compared smear microscopy, culture, and tuberculosis molecular bacterial load assay (TB-MBLA) for treatment monitoring. Following that, bacterial clearance was longitudinally monitored among TB-only (TB without DM) and TB-diabetes (TBDM) patients using TB-MBLA.

Aetiological agents of pneumonia among HIV and non-HIV infected children in Ghana: A case-control study.

Pneumonia is the leading cause of death in children, however, the microbial aetiology of pneumonia is not well elucidated in low- and middle-income countries. Our study was aimed at determining the microbial aetiologies of childhood pneumonia and associated risk factors in HIV and non-HIV infected children. We conducted a case-control study that enrolled children with pneumonia as cases and non-pneumonia as controls from July 2017 to May 2020.

Carbapenem- and cefiderocol-resistant in surface water in Kumasi, Ashanti Region, Ghana.

Background: MDR pathogens including ESBL- and/or carbapenemase-producing (ESBL-PE and CPE) increasingly occur worldwide in the One Health context.

Objectives: This proof-of-principle study investigated the occurrence of ESBL-PE in surface water in the Ashanti Region in Ghana, sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), and investigated their additional genotypic and phenotypic antimicrobial resistance features as part of the Surveillance Outbreak Response Management and Analysis System (SORMAS).

Methods: From 75 water samples overall, from nine small to medium-sized river streams and one pond spatially connected to a channelled water stream in the greater area of Kumasi (capital of the Ashanti Region in Ghana) in 2021, we isolated 121 putative ESBL-PE that were subsequently subjected to in-depth genotypic and phenotypic analysis.

Clinical epidemiology, determinants, and outcomes of viral encephalitis in Ghana; a cross-sectional study.

Viral encephalitis is a rare, yet severe neurological disorder. It poses a significant public health threat due to its high morbidity and mortality. Despite the disproportionate burden of the disease in impoverished African countries, the true extent of the problem remains elusive due to the scarcity of accurate diagnostic methods.

Rhizosphere microbiome of plants used in phytoremediation of mine tailing dams.

Rhizospheric microbial communities improve the effectiveness of hyperaccumulators in the phytoremediation of heavy metals. However, limited access to tailing dams and inadequate assessment of plants' phytoremediation potential limit the characterization of native accumulators, hindering the effectiveness of local remediation efforts. This study evaluates the heavy metal sequestration potentials of , and and their associated rhizospheric microbial communities at the Marlu and Pompora tailing dams in Ghana.

Antimicrobial susceptibility profile of oral and rectal microbiota of non-human primate species in Ghana: A threat to human health.

Background: The potential for the transfer of zoonotic diseases, including bacteria between human and non-human primates (NHPs), is expected to rise. It is posited that NHPs that live in close contact with humans serve as sentinels and reservoirs for antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Objectives: The objective was to characterize the oral and rectal bacteria in Ghanaian NHPs and profile the antimicrobial susceptibility of the isolated bacteria.

Solid waste motor tricycle operators in Kumasi, Ghana, harbour respiratory pathogens; a public health threat.

Background: The use of motor tricycles in transporting municipal solid waste (MSW) within urban and peri-urban towns in Ghana is on the increase. This activity often leads to the introduction of pathogen-containing bioaerosols into the environment, as well as to the tricycle operators. We sought to investigate the prevalence and associated risk factors of respiratory pathogens among solid waste tricycle operators.

A multiplex PCR assay for the differentiation of complex reveals high rates of mixed-lineage tuberculosis infections among patients in Ghana.

In low-resource settings with high tuberculosis (TB) burdens, lack of rapid diagnostic methods for detection and differentiation of complex (MTBC) is a major challenge affecting TB management. This study utilized comparative genomic analyses of MTBC lineages; , Lineages 5/6 and to identify lineage-specific genes. Primers were designed for the development of a Multiplex PCR assay which was successful in differentiating the MTBC lineages.

'This disease is not meant for the hospital, it is Asram': Implications of a traditionally-defined illness on healthcare seeking for children under-5 in rural Ashanti, Ghana.

Every child has the right to survive, grow and develop. However, in spite of the considerable global gains that have been made in child survival, Sub-Saharan Africa still has the highest child mortality rates and accounts for the greatest burden of mortality globally. The majority of these children die without ever reaching a health facility.

No evidence for yaws infection in a small-scale cross-sectional serosurvey in Ghanaian monkeys.

Background: Treponema pallidum (TP) is a spirochaete bacterium with subspecies that in humans cause syphilis (subsp. pallidum), bejel (subsp. endemicum) and yaws (subsp.

RETRACTED: Gradual emergence followed by exponential spread of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant in Africa.

The geographic and evolutionary origins of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant (BA.1), which was first detected mid-November 2021 in Southern Africa, remain unknown. We tested 13,097 COVID-19 patients sampled between mid-2021 to early 2022 from 22 African countries for BA.

Using drones to transport suspected COVID-19 samples; experiences from the second largest testing centre in Ghana, West Africa.

Background: The declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic on March 11 2020, by the World Health Organisation prompted the need for a sustained and a rapid international response. In a swift response, the Government of Ghana, in partnership with Zipline company, launched the use of Unmanned Automated Vehicles (UAV) to transport suspected samples from selected districts to two foremost testing centres in the country. Here, we present the experiences of employing this technology and its impact on the transport time to the second largest testing centre, the Kumasi Centre for Collaborative Research in Tropical Medicine (KCCR) in Kumasi, Ghana.

SARS-COV-2 antibody responses to AZD1222 vaccination in West Africa.

Real-world data on vaccine-elicited neutralising antibody responses for two-dose AZD1222 in African populations are limited. We assessed baseline SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence and levels of protective neutralizing antibodies prior to vaccination rollout using binding antibodies analysis coupled with pseudotyped virus neutralisation assays in two cohorts from West Africa: Nigerian healthcare workers (n = 140) and a Ghanaian community cohort (n = 527) pre and post vaccination. We found 44 and 28% of pre-vaccination participants showed IgG anti-N positivity, increasing to 59 and 39% respectively with anti-receptor binding domain (RBD) IgG-specific antibodies.

What Is in the Salad? and Antibiotic Resistance in Lettuce Irrigated with Various Water Sources in Ghana.

Introduction: Safety of the environment in which vegetables are grown, marketed and consumed is paramount as most are eaten raw. Irrigation sources include open drains and streams, which are often contaminated with human and animal waste due to poor sanitation infrastructure. In irrigated vegetable farms using such sources in Ghana, we assessed counts, antibiotic resistance patterns and resistant genes on irrigated lettuce.

COVID-19 and co-infection in pregnancy associated with fetal demise: a case report.

Since the global pandemic of the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19), few studies have reported on the relevance of bacteria co-infection on outcome of COVID-19 patients. Little is known about the clinical presentation among pregnant women, mother-to-child transmission, and fetal outcomes. This report shows a 24-year-old nulliparous woman who was 32 weeks pregnant and was admitted to the University Hospital, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi Ghana with symptoms of fever (40.

Genetic characterization of varicella-zoster and HIV-1 viruses from the cerebrospinal fluid of a co-infected encephalitic patient, Ghana.

Background: Encephalitis is a serious disease of the brain characterized by prodromal and specific neurological symptoms. HIV infections offer opportunistic viruses, such as Varicella-zoster virus (VZV), the chance to cause encephalitis in patients. There is a lack of information on the genetic diversity of VZV in Ghana and other parts of Africa which requires sequencing and characterization studies to address.

Bacterial diversity significantly reduces toward the late stages among filarial lymphedema patients in the Ahanta West District of Ghana: A cross-sectional study.

Background: Lymphatic Filariasis (LF), a neglected tropical disease, has been speculated to be complicated by secondary bacteria, yet a systematic documentation of these bacterial populations is lacking. Thus, the primary focus of this study was to profile bacteria diversity in the progression of filarial lymphedema among LF individuals with or without wounds.

Methods: A cross-sectional study design recruited 132 LF individuals presenting with lymphedema with or without wounds from eight communities in the Ahanta West District in the Western Region, Ghana.

Genetic diversity of SARS-CoV-2 infections in Ghana from 2020-2021.

The COVID-19 pandemic is one of the fastest evolving pandemics in recent history. As such, the SARS-CoV-2 viral evolution needs to be continuously tracked. This study sequenced 1123 SARS-CoV-2 genomes from patient isolates (121 from arriving travellers and 1002 from communities) to track the molecular evolution and spatio-temporal dynamics of the SARS-CoV-2 variants in Ghana.

Surveillance and laboratory collaboration in response to an outbreak of Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Plesiomonas shigelloides, and Aeromonas hydrophila in Sekondi-Takoradi, Ghana: a case series.

Background: The detection of epidemic-prone pathogens is important in strengthening global health security. Effective public health laboratories are critical for reliable, accurate, and timely testing results in outbreak situations. Ghana received funding as one of the high-risk non-Ebola affected countries to build and strengthen public health infrastructure to meet International Health Regulation core capacities.

User experiences of a mobile phone-based health information and surveillance system (mHISS): A case of caregivers of children under-five in rural communities in Ghana.

Background: The rapid advancement of mobile technology has fueled the use of mobile devices for health interventions and for improving healthcare provision in underserved communities. Despite the potential of mHealth being used as a health information and surveillance tool, its scale-up has been challenging and, in most cases, unable to advance beyond the pilot stage of implementation. The purpose of this study was to explore user experiences of a mobile phone-based interactive voice response (IVR) system among caregivers of children under-five in rural communities in the Asante Akim North District of Ghana.