Resources

Acute sensorineural deafness in Lassa fever

This resource describes a prospective audiometric evaluation of 69 hospitalized febrile patients in Sierra Leone, West Africa, that revealed a sensorineural hearing deficit (SNHD) in 14 (29%) of 49 confirmed cases of Lassa fever and in 0 of 20 febrile controls. This study found that lassa fever is associated with an incidence of SNHD, which considerably exceeds that previously reported with any other postnatally acquired infection.

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Healthcare providers on the frontlines: A qualitative investigation of the social and emotional impact of delivering health services during Sierra Leone’s Ebola epidemic

This paper describes the stigma experienced by health care workers during the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone, and recommends psychological support mechanisms for medical staff working in epidemic contexts.

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Improving burial practices and cemetery management during an Ebola virus disease epidemic — Sierra Leone, 2014

This piece is a summary of an assessment conducted in Sierra Leone on the acceptability of safe, nontraditional burial practices and cemetery management during the Ebola Outbreak. Both measures aimed the control of the virus transmission. Some of the findings were: scarce burial teams, miscoordination among Ebola response bodies, lack of systematic procedures for testing and reporting results on dead bodies from Laboratories, inadequate cementerie space, no acceptance of safe burial practices by communities. These finding informed a standard operating procedure (SOP) for safe, dignified medical burials.

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Lassa fever: Epidemiology, clinical features, and social consequences

This resource describes the epidemiology of Lassa fever and its vector, as well as the clinical course and management of the disease. It then reports on current treatment efforts, surveillance and disease control before presenting community perspectives through a knowledge, attitude and practice survey and a qualitative study.  

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