School-wide publications

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://dspace.njala.edu.sl/handle/20.500.144402/152

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Start date: 2020

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Now showing 1 - 10 of 49
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    What’s in a name? Why giving monkeypox a new one is a good idea
    (The Conversation Media Group Ltd, 2022-06-20) Bockarie, Moses
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    Genetic diversity of coffee germplasm in Sierra Leone: implications for conservation and breeding programs
    (Maximum Academic Press, 2023) Lahai, Paul Musa
    Global coffee production is dominated by Coffea arabica (Arabica coffee) and C. canephora (Robusta coffee) due to their relatively high-yielding and quality attributes as opposed to other coffee species. Despite these advantages, production of Arabica and Robusta coffee is facing mounting challenges though not limited to increasing prevalence and severity of biotic and abiotic stresses. These challenges bring forth an indication that the global coffee crop portfolio requires diversification to ensure resilience to the key challenges for sustainable production.Sierra Leone is in the center of genetic diversity of genus Coffea, and the countryhosts rich coffee genetic resources. The C. stenophylla, C. affinis and possibly other wild relative species are indigenous to Sierra Leone and these species offer great potential for a new coffee market and income generation. However, moreefforts of conservation and genetic improvement on these species, are needed to realize these opportunities.The objective of this paper is to review the coffee genetic resources in Sierra Leone with an emphasis on the wild coffee species including their conservation status, and the phenotypic and molecular characterization. We also presented perspectives for future genetic improvement of C. stenophylla, and discussed breeding methods,combiningability, and molecular marker-assisted prediction of hybrid vigor. Moreover, with the availability of recently developed single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) markers on C. stenophylla, we suggest that new technologies of molecular breeding, such as genomic selection can significantly accelerate the breeding progress and deliver improved varieties with high yield, good adaptability, and disease resistance.
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    Oral rehydration therapies in Senegal, Mali, and Sierra Leone: a spatial analysis of changes over time and implications for policy
    (BioMed Central, 2020-12-01) Wiens, Kirsten E
    BACKGROUND: Oral rehydration solution (ORS) is a simple intervention that can prevent childhood deaths from severe diarrhea and dehydration. In a previous study, we mapped the use of ORS treatment subnationally and found that ORS coverage increased over time, while the use of home-made alternatives or recommended home fluids (RHF) decreased, in many countries. These patterns were particularly striking within Senegal, Mali, and Sierra Leone. It was unclear, however, whether ORS replaced RHF in these locations or if children were left untreated, and if these patterns were associated with health policy changes. METHODS: We used a Bayesian geostatistical model and data from household surveys to map the percentage of children with diarrhea that received (1) any ORS, (2) only RHF, or (3) no oral rehydration treatment between 2000 and 2018. This approach allowed examination of whether RHF was replaced with ORS before and after interventions, policies, and external events that may have impacted healthcare access. RESULTS: We found that RHF was replaced with ORS in most Sierra Leone districts, except those most impacted by the Ebola outbreak. In addition, RHF was replaced in northern but not in southern Mali, and RHF was not replaced anywhere in Senegal. In Senegal, there was no statistical evidence that a national policy promoting ORS use was associated with increases in coverage. In Sierra Leone, ORS coverage increased following a national policy change that abolished health costs for children. CONCLUSIONS: Children in parts of Mali and Senegal have been left behind during ORS scale-up. Improved messaging on effective diarrhea treatment and/or increased ORS access such as through reducing treatment costs may be needed to prevent child deaths in these areas.
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    Lockdown measures in response to COVID-19 in Sub-Saharan Africa: A rapid study of nine countries
    (openRxiv, 2020-07-11) Haider, Najmul
    Lockdown measures have been introduced worldwide to contain the transmission of COVID-19. This paper defines the term lockdown and describes the design, timing and implementation of lockdown in nine countries in Sub Saharan Africa: Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It also discusses the manner in which lockdown is enforced, the need to mitigate the harms of lockdown, and the association between lockdown and the reported number of COVID-19 cases and deaths. While there are some commonalities in the implementation of lockdown, a more notable finding is the variation in the design, timing and implementation of lockdown measures across the nine countries. We found that the number of reported cases is heavily dependent on the number of tests done, and that testing rates ranged from 9 to 21,261 per million population. The reported number of COVID-19 deaths per million population also varies, but is generally low when compared to countries in Europe and North America. While lockdown measures may have helped inhibit some community transmission, the pattern and nature of the epidemic remains unclear. Of concern are signs of lockdown harming health by affecting the functioning of the health system and causing social and economic harms. This paper highlights the need for inter-sectoral and trans-disciplinary research capable of providing a rigorous and holistic assessment of the harms and benefits of lockdown.
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    Implications of Prevalence and Intensity of Soil-Transmitted Helminthes (STHs) on Rural Farmers’ Productivity in Selected Districts of Sierra Leone
    (Warsaw University of Life Sciences, 2023-03-31) Ngegba, Mohamed Paul
    Soil-transmitted Helminths (STH) are among the most prevalent parasitic diseases that impair childhood physical and mental growth, hence hindering economic development. The study was a cross-sectional-designed survey, conducted in three districts in Sierra Leone between December and March 2022 on 625 individual farmers to determine: 1) the prevalence of soil-transmitted helminths; 2) the intensity of soil-transmitted helminths; 3) the effect of the prevalence and intensity on farm productivity, and 4) the implication of these effects on agricultural extension service delivery and the rural livelihood of the selected districts. Stool samples were collected from male and female farmers in fifteen chiefdoms in the selected districts and analyzed using the Kato-Katz technique. A total of 625 individuals were included, among whom 172 (27.0%) were vegetable farmers, 224 (35.8%) were tree-crop farmers and 226 (36.2%) were rice farmers. The result indicates a prevalence of parasitic infection among farmers shown by 58.4% eggs/ova in stool from the three districts. STH prevalence is higher in Bo (64.0%), Koinadugu (56.9%), and Kailahun (51,7%). STH infections, in various ways, affected extension services, delivery and the livelihoods of individual farmers. The recommendation is that farmers and children be periodically dewormed for STH infection in rural areas.
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    Role of parent’s teachers association in enhancing discipline in secondary schools in Makeni City, Northern Sierra Leone
    (2022-09-06) Turay, Edwin Augustine Junior
    Despite the Government effort of ensuring community direct involvement and ownership of development projects in their locality such as education, the extent of parents input in students discipline through the Parent Teachers Association (PTA) remains obscure in many secondary schools. This study was to determine the role of Parents Teachers Association (PTA) in enhancing discipline in Public Secondary Schools in Makeni City, Northern Sierra Leone. The study was guided by four research questions that investigated the following aspects: The activities of PTA in enhancing students‟ discipline, the extent to which PTA role enhances discipline, the challenges facing PTA in students discipline management and suggestions on how the PTA can be more effective in enhancing discipline. The study employed both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies with a cross-sectional survey and phenomenological design. The target population consisted of 4 Government assisted public secondary schools, principals, discipline masters, PTA members, class teachers, and all students of the 4 public secondary schools in Makeni City. The sample size consisted of 4 principals, 4 discipline masters, 36 class teachers, 36 PTA members and 160 students. Data was collected by use of interview guides, questionnaires, and document analysis guide, which were personally administered by the researcher. Quantitative data was analyzed in frequencies and percentages using SPSS version 20, while qualitative data was organized into themes and analyzed descriptively. Conclusions and recommendations were made based on the findings there of.
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    Rabies Virus in Sierra Leone: Challenges and Recommended Solutions for Elimination by 2030
    (IntechOpen, 2021-09-21) Suluku, Roland
    The objective of this write-up is to find possible solution control canine rabies virus in Sierra Leone and other low-income countries in the world. Rabies is a viral disease affecting both humans and animals in Sierra Leone. The country has no policy on dog ownership and management, two veterinarians, limited access to rabies vaccines and human immunoglobin, and a lack of information about the disease in the country despite increasing dog bite cases and death. There is no wildlife specialist to initiate wildlife vaccination. Continuous vaccination increased awareness, trained personnel in veterinary and wildlife, development of policies on responsible dog ownership and by-laws and increase financial support from the government and private sector will help Sierra Leone eliminate rabies in the first half of the twenty-first century.
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    Dog rabies control in West and Central Africa: A review
    (Elsevier BV, 2020-05-11) Mbilo, Céline
    Rabies is a neglected but preventable zoonotic disease that predominantly affects the most vulnerable populations living in remote rural areas of resource-limited countries. To date, every country on the African mainland is considered endemic for dog-mediated rabies with an estimated 21'500 human rabies deaths occurring each year. In 2018, the United Against Rabies collaboration launched the Global Strategic Plan to end human deaths from dog-mediated rabies by 2030. The epidemiology of rabies from most Western and Central African countries remains poorly defined, making it difficult to assess the overall rabies situation and progress towards the 2030 goal. In this review, we attempt to provide an overview of the current rabies situation in 22 West and Central African countries based on published scientific literature and information obtained from rabies focal points. To this end, information was collected on i) established surveillance, ii) diagnostic capacity, iii) post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) availability and coverage, iv) dog population estimates, v) dog vaccination campaigns, vi) animal and human health communication (One Health), vii) molecular studies, viii) Knowledge, Attitude and Practices (KAP), ix) cost estimates and x) national control strategies. Although rabies is a notifiable disease in the majority of the studied countries, national surveillance systems do not adequately capture the disease. A general lack of rabies diagnostic capacity has an additional negative impact on rabies surveillance and attempts to estimate rabies burden. Recurrent shortages of human rabies vaccine are reported by all of the countries, with vaccine availability usually limited to major urban centers but no country has yet adopted the new WHO-recommended 1-week intradermal vaccination regimen. Most countries carry out subsidized mass dog vaccination campaigns on World Rabies Day. Such activities are indispensable to keep rabies in the public consciousness but are not of the scale and intensity that is required to eliminate rabies from the dog population. Countries will need to scale up the intensity of their campaigns, if they are to progress towards the 2030 goal. But more than half of the countries do not yet have reliable figures on their dog populations. Only two countries reached stage 2 on the Stepwise Approach towards Rabies Elimination ladder - indicating that their national governments have truly prioritized rabies elimination and are thus providing the necessary support and political buy-in required to achieve success. In summary, the sub-region of West and Central Africa seems to be divided into countries which have accepted the challenge to eliminate rabies with governments committed to pushing forward rabies elimination, while other countries have achieved some progress, but elimination efforts remain stuck due to lacking government commitment and financial constraints. The possibility to meet the 2030 goal without international solidarity is low, because more than two-thirds of the countries rank in the low human development group (HDI ≤ 152). Leading countries should act as role models, sharing their experiences and capacities so that no country is left behind. Unified and with international support it is possible to reach the common goal of zero human rabies deaths by 2030.
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    Measuring coverage of maternal and child health services using routine health facility data: a Sierra Leone case study
    (BioMed Central, 2021-09-01) Maïga, Abdoulaye
    BACKGROUND: There are limited existing approaches to generate estimates from Routine Health Information Systems (RHIS) data, despite the growing interest to these data. We calculated and assessed the consistency of maternal and child health service coverage estimates from RHIS data, using census-based and health service-based denominators in Sierra Leone. METHODS: We used Sierra Leone 2016 RHIS data to calculate coverage of first antenatal care contact (ANC1), institutional delivery and diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus 3 (DPT3) immunization service provision. For each indicator, national and district level coverages were calculated using denominators derived from two census-based and three health service-based methods. We compared the coverage estimates from RHIS data to estimates from MICS 2017. We considered the agreement adequate when estimates from RHIS fell within the 95% confidence interval of the survey estimate. RESULTS: We found an overall poor consistency of the coverage estimates calculated from the census-based methods. ANC1 and institutional delivery coverage estimates from these methods were greater than 100% in about half of the fourteen districts, and only 3 of the 14 districts had estimates consistent with the survey data. Health service-based methods generated better estimates. For institutional delivery coverage, five districts met the agreement criteria using BCG service-based method. We found better agreement for DPT3 coverage estimates using DPT1 service-based method as national coverage was close to survey data, and estimates were consistent for 8 out of 14 districts. DPT3 estimates were consistent in almost half of the districts (6/14) using ANC1 service-based method. CONCLUSION: The study highlighted the challenge in determining an appropriate denominator for RHIS-based coverage estimates. Systematic and transparent data quality check and correction, as well as rigorous approaches to determining denominators are key considerations to generate accurate coverage statistics using RHIS data.