Resources

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Power, fairness and trust : understanding and engaging with vaccine trial participants and communities in the setting up the EVOVAC-Salone vaccine trial in Sierra Leone

In this article the authors discuss the implementation of an Ebola vaccine trial in Kambia district in Sierra Leone during and after the epidemic. They analyze the role of social science research for the development of community engagement strategies. The authors give special attention to the analysis of rumours as source of information and explanation about resistance rooted in a much deeper sociopolitical context.

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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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Use of protective gear and the occurrence of occupational Marburg hemorrhagic fever in health workers from Watsa health zone, Democratic Republic of the Congo

This paper shows how health workers used PPE in an outbreak of Marburg Virus in DRC. The findings show that HWs protected themselves better during invasive procedures (injections, venepuncture, and surgery) than during noninvasive procedures, but the overall level of protection in the hospital remained insufficient, particularly outside of isolation wards. The reasons for inconsistent use of protective gear included insufficient availability of the gear, adherence to non-biomedical explanatory models of the origin of disease, and peer bonding with sick colleagues.

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Poor housing quality increases risk of rodent infestation and Lassa fever in refugee camps of Sierra Leone

To determine risk of Lassa fever in households in Sierra Leonean refugee camps, this paper analysed the spatial relationships between households with a Lassa case and focal locations of potential rodent habitats. Quality and hygiene factors of households were assessed to determine possible risk factors for household rodent infestation and occurrence of Lassa fever.

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Participation of women and children in hunting activities in Sierra Leone and implications for control of zoonotic infections

This paper underscores the challenges of interventions, surveillance, research and sensitization campaigns. To address such complexity, intervention strategies should become more diversified and context-specific. In particular the role of children should be recognised; specific intervention strategies should be tailored to children's specific hunting practices.

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Rat-Atouille: A mixed method study to characterize rodent hunting and consumption in the context of Lassa fever

This paper investigated the consumption of rodents, including the reservoir species of Lassa fever, and found this is widespread and does not neatly tally against generational or gender lines. Further, it found that the reasons for rodent consumption are multifactorial, including taste preferences, food security, and opportunistic behaviour.

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Safe intensive-care management of a severe case of Lassa fever with simple barrier nursing techniques

This resource describes the case-management of Lassa fever in a specific patient and the difficulties encountered in repatriating her for diagnosis and management, which is unavailable in Sierra Leone, are described.The experience with this case has implications for the medical care and safe handling of Lassa fever in both endemic and nonendemic areas.

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EBOVAC-Salone: Lessons learned from implementing an Ebola vaccine trial in an Ebola-affected country

This article describes the experiences of the EBOVAC-Salone research team in setting up and implementing the trial, and provides recommendations for research teams aiming to conduct clinical trials in future outbreak situations.

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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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WHO: 1996 - Lassa fever in Sierra Leone - update 2

The conclusion of the WHO support mission is that a major epidemic of Lassa Fever has occurred in Kailahun and Kenema Districts and is continuing as unusually large numbers of severely ill patients are still being admitted to hospital, with a large number of deaths still occurring.

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