OBJECTIVE To assess the consistent availability of basic surgical resources at selected facilities in seven countries. METHODS In 2010-2014, we used a situational analysis tool to collect data at district and regional hospitals in Bangladesh (n = 14), the Plurinational State of Bolivia (n = 18), Ethiopia (n = 19), Guatemala (n = 20), the Lao People's Democratic Republic (n = 12), Liberia (n =...

The explosive outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in West Africa in 2014 appeared to have lessened in 2015, but potentially continues be a global public health threat. A simple mathematical model, the Richards model, is utilized to gauge the temporal variability in the spread of the Ebola virus disease (EVD) in West Africa in terms of its reproduction number R and its temporal changes via det...

Guinea is struggling to contain west Africa’s first major Ebola outbreak. Laboratory tests have confi rmed an appearance of the Zaire strain—the most deadly subtype of the virus— originating in the impoverished country’s rural southeast. Of the more than 100 suspected infections, at least 70 people have died, according to the country’s health offi cials. Four of the dead are health workers. If ...

Abstract We confirmed endemicity and autochthonous transmission of yaws in Liberia after a population-based, community-led burden estimation (56,825 participants). Serologically was rare focal at population level (24 cases; 2.6 [95% CI 1.4–3.9] cases/10,000 population) with similar clinical epidemiology to other endemic countries West Africa. Unsupervised classification spatially referenced cas...

Developing a surveillance system during a public health emergency is always challenging but is especially so in countries with limited public health infrastructure. Surveillance for Ebola virus disease (Ebola) in the West African countries heavily affected by Ebola (Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone) faced numerous impediments, including insufficient numbers of trained staff, community reticenc...

BACKGROUND Direct measurement of sensitive health events is often limited by high levels of under-reporting due to stigma and concerns about privacy. Abortion in particular is notoriously difficult to measure. This study implements a novel method to estimate the cumulative lifetime incidence of induced abortion in Liberia. METHODS In a randomly selected sample of 3219 women ages 15–49 years i...

The arenavirus Lassa virus causes Lassa fever, a viral hemorrhagic fever that is endemic in the countries of Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea and perhaps elsewhere in West Africa. To determine the degree of genetic diversity among Lassa virus strains, partial nucleoprotein (NP) gene sequences were obtained from 54 strains and analyzed. Phylogenetic analyses showed that Lassa viruses c...

According to WHO, more than 5000 people have died from Ebola, including 240 health workers. We are deeply concerned about the devastating effect of Ebola on reproductive health in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone in the context of continuous deterioration of socioeconomic conditions and general health in aff ected countries. The indirect negative effect of Ebola on reproductive health stems ma...