School-wide publications
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Item Reemergence of Chikungunya Virus in Bo, Sierra Leone(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013-05-24) Ansumana, RashidWe diagnosed 400 possible IgM-positive cases of chikungunya virus in Bo, Sierra Leone, during July 2012-January 2013 by using lateral flow immunoassays. Cases detected likely represent only a small fraction of total cases. Further laboratory testing is required to confirm this outbreak and characterize the virus.Item Presumptive self-diagnosis of malaria and other febrile illnesses in Sierra Leone(African Field Epidemiology Network, 2013) Ansumana, RashidINTRODUCTION: The objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of self-diagnosis of malaria and other febrile illnesses in Bo, Sierra Leone. METHODS: All households in two neighboring sections of Bo were invited to participate in a cross-sectional survey. RESULTS: A total of 882 households (an 85% participation rate) that were home to 5410 individuals participated in the study. Of the 910 individuals reported to have had what the household considered to be malaria in the past month, only 41% were diagnosed by a healthcare professional or a laboratory test. Of the 1402 individuals reported to have had any type of febrile illness within the past six months, only 34% had sought a clinical or laboratory diagnosis. Self-diagnosis of influenza, yellow fever, typhoid, and pneumonia was also common. CONCLUSION: Self-diagnosis and presumptive treatment with antimalarial drugs and other antibiotic medications that are readily available without a prescription may compromise health outcomes for febrile adults and children.Item PO 8584 MULTIPLEXED MOLECULAR DETECTION OF MALARIA IN SIERRA LEONE(BMJ, 2019-04-01) Ansumana, RashidBackground Despite several control measures and policy changes in Africa, malaria remains one of the most prevalent diseases in West Africa. The gold standard for malaria diagnosis is microscopy. However, due to low technical capacities in resource-poor countries, rapid immunochromatographic tests are commonly used. In Sierra Leone, P. falciparum-specific ICT with histidine-rich proteins2(HRP-2) are used. HRP2 is specific to P. falciparum and the kit cannot be used to detect other species of malaria which are also present in the disease ecology in Sierra Leone. Methods In this study, we assessed 182 febrile subjects for malaria between April 2017-July 2018 at the Mercy Hospital Research Laboratory in Sierra Leone. The blood samples collected were assessed using the Walter Reed Army Institute for Research(WRAIR) multiplex malaria PCR kit packaged by BioGX, Inc. (Alabama, USA) for detecting and speciation of malaria from human blood. Thin and thick slides were done for each sample and the images recorded by a digital scope. Results Results show that, out of 163 samples run by multiplex PCR for malaria, 81 (49.7%) were positive for P. falciparum, while 82 (50.3%) were positive for Plasmodium vivax. Conclusion The presence of P. vivax in the disease ecology without any significant difference (p>0.05) with P. falciparum poses problems for clinical outcomes of febrile illnesses. Pan-malaria diagnostics in combination with P. falciparum could avert under-diagnosis of malaria.Item Effects of disruption from COVID-19 on antimalarial strategies(Nature Portfolio, 2020-08-17) Ansumana, RashidItem Building diagnostic systems in Sierra Leone: The role of point-of-care devices in laboratory strengthening(AOSIS, 2020-04-01) Ansumana, RashidThe African Journal of Laboratory Medicine focuses on the role of the laboratory and its professionals in the clinical and public healthcare sectors, and is specifically based on an African frame of reference.