BACKGROUND Maternal mortality ratio (MMR) remains high in Sierra Leone. Efforts have been made to reduce MMR by increasing the number of women delivering at a health facility through introduction of the Free Health Care Initiative in 2010. Despite this, utilisation remains lower than aimed for, with marked inequalities between rural and urban settings. This study explores the perceptions and de...

Between September 2014 and February 2015, the number of Ebola virus disease (EVD) cases reported in Sierra Leone declined in many districts. During this period, a major international response was put in place, with thousands of treatment beds introduced alongside other infection control measures. However, assessing the impact of the response is challenging, as several factors could have influen...

BACKGROUND People with disabilities have the right to personal mobility and available and affordable assistive technology, according to the Convention of Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The aims were to investigate similarities and differences between Sierra Leone and Malawi concerning participants' mobility and satisfaction with their lower-limb prosthetic or orthotic device and related s...

Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome caused by HIV-1 or HIV-2, affects 35.3 million people worldwide. Nine HIV-2 subtypes originating from sooty mangabeys in West Africa have been described. Subtypes A and B are epidemic while C to I are crossovers that are known in single persons. HIV-2F is an exception among non-epidemic subtypes, being pathogenic and found in two persons, both from Northern Si...

A niru Conteh spent 25 years in his native Sierra Leone dedicated to treating patients with Lassa fever, a rodentborne viral disease, to which he ultimately succumbed on April 4, 2004. Dr. Conteh's life is a model of the dedicated healthcare worker. His colleagues hope that his death can gal-vanize support for healthcare workers and scientists working on the front lines with Lassa fever virus a...

BACKGROUND On March 23, 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) was notified of an outbreak of Ebola virus disease (EVD) in Guinea. On August 8, the WHO declared the epidemic to be a "public health emergency of international concern." METHODS By September 14, 2014, a total of 4507 probable and confirmed cases, including 2296 deaths from EVD (Zaire species) had been reported from five countr...

The impact of the 2013–2016 Ebola virus disease outbreak in the Mano River Union region, which includes Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea,1 is a direct indicator of the acute limitations in national healthcare systems and the critical role played by diagnostic and public health laboratories. Despite having a Central Public Health Reference Laboratory, Sierra Leone lacked the capacity to provide ...

Jing Wang 1, Jingfeng Huang 1,*, Ping Gao 2, Chuanwen Wei 1 and Lamin R. Mansaray 1,3 1 Institute of Remote Sensing and Information Application, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China; [email protected] (J.W.); [email protected] (C.W.); [email protected] (L.R.M.) 2 Jiangsu Meteorological Bureau, Nanjing 210008, China; [email protected] 3 Department of Agro-Meteorology and Ge...

1 SUMMARY  Since the week ending 10 May, when a 10-month low of 9 cases of Ebola virus disease (EVD) were reported from 2 prefectures of Guinea and 1 district of Sierra Leone, both the intensity and geographical area of EVD transmission have increased. In the week ending 31 May, a total of 25 confirmed cases were reported from 4 prefectures of Guinea and 3 districts of Sierra Leone. Several ca...