Title: Water Pollution Laws in Sierra Leone—A Review with Examples from the UK and USA
Authors: Abubakarr S. Mansaray1, Jason Aamodt2, Bashiru M. Koroma3
Abstract/Summary
In Sierra Leone, poor water quality is a major threat to public health and aquatic life. The main source of this problem appears to be poorly regulated waste disposal. Even though water pollution laws exist, their enforcement is challenged by many gaps and, seemingly, they focus on the quest to sustain natural resource exploitation. This work presents a case for strengthening such laws to promote public health, economic growth, and resource conservation. The article presents examples of problems that necessitated promulgation of water pollution laws in the US and the UK. Sierra Leone has been affected by similar problems such as public health, war efforts, and industrialization.
Title: Serological Evidence for the Circulation of Ebolaviruses in Pigs from Sierra Leone
Authors: Kerstin Fischer, 1 Juliet Jabaty, 4 Roland Suluku, 5 Thomas Strecker, 6 Allison Groseth2 , Sarah K. Fehling, 6 Anne Balkema-Buschmann, 1 Bashiru Koroma, 5 Kristina M. Schmidt, 1 Christine Atherstone, 7,8 Hana M. Weingartl, 9 Thomas C. Mettenleiter, 3 Martin H. Groschup, 1 Thomas Hoenen, 3 and Sandra Diederich1
Abstract/Summary
Many human ebolavirus outbreaks have been linked to contact with wildlife including nonhuman primates and bats, which are assumed to serve as host species. However, it is largely unknown to what extent other animal species, particularly livestock, are involved in the transmission cycle or act as additional hosts for filoviruses. Pigs were identified as a susceptible host for Reston virus with subsequent transmission to humans reported in the Philippines. To date, there is no evidence of natural Ebola virus (EBOV) infection in pigs, although pigs were shown to be susceptible to EBOV infection under experimental settings. To investigate the potential role of pigs in the ecology of EBOV, we analyzed 400 porcine serum samples from Sierra Leone for the presence of ebolavirus- specific antibodies. Three samples reacted with ebolavirus nucleoproteins but had no neutralizing antibodies. Our results (1) suggest the circulation of ebolaviruses in swine in Sierra Leone that are antigenically related but not identical to EBOV and (2) could represent undiscovered ebolaviruses with unknown pathogenic and/or zoonotic potential.
Title: What Happened to the Forests of Sierra Leone?
Authors: Richard A. Wadsworth 1,* and Aiah R. Lebbie 2
Abstract/Summary
The last National Forest Inventory of Sierra Leone took place more than four decades ago in 1975. There appears to be no legal definition of “forest” in Sierra Leone and it is sometimes unclear whether reports are referring to the forest as a “land use” or a “land cover”. Estimates of forest loss in the Global Forest Resource Assessment Country Reports are based on the estimated rate during the period 1975 to 1986, and this has not been adjusted for the effects of the civil war, economic booms and busts, and the human population doubling (from about three million in 1975 to over seven million in 2018). Country estimates as part of the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations) Global Forest Assessment for 2015 aggregate several classes that are not usually considered as “forest” in normal discourse in Sierra Leone (for example, mangrove swamps, rubber plantations and Raphia palm swamps). This paper makes use of maps from 1950, 1975, and 2000/2 to discuss the fate of forests in Sierra Leone. The widely accepted narrative on forest loss in Sierra Leone and generally in West Africa is that it is rapid, drastic and recent. We suggest that the validity of this narrative depends on how you define “forest”. This paper provides a detailed description of what has happened, and at the same time, offers a different view on the relationship between forests and people than the ideas put forward by James Fairhead and Melissa LeachIf we are going to progress the debate about forests in West Africa, up-to-date information and the involvement of all stakeholders are needed to contribute to the debate on what to measure. Otherwise, the decades-old assumption that the area of forest in Sierra Leone lies between less than 5% and more than 75%, provides an error margin that is not useful. This, therefore, necessitates a new forest inventory.
Title: Viral Education via Mobile Phone: Virtual International Networks and Ebola Prevention in Sierra Leone
Authors: Julia Bello-Bravo1, Anne Namatsi Lutomi2, Thomas Songu3, Barry Robert Pittendrigh4
Abstract/Summary
This chapter documents a strategy for the development and deployment of educational content on Ebola prevention and treatment targeted at low-literate learners speaking diverse languages. During the outbreak of Ebola in Sierra Leone, Njala University partnered with Scientific Animations Without Borders (SAWBO) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to create educational animations on Ebola. Drawing on an international network of collaborators, these animations were then placed into multiple languages for Sierra Leone. Njala University in turn acted as the central hub for engaging local partner groups to deploy this content throughout Sierra Leone. This chapter describes the development process, which occurred during the outbreaks and the ICT tools now available to the global health community. The educational animations created during the 2014 Ebola outbreak are now available in multiple languages for Sierra Leone, as well as other West African countries, along with a highly scal-able deployment pathway that can be rapidly operationalized during future outbreaks or modeled for other outbreak or health crisis situations.
Title: Isolation of Angola-like Marburg virus from Egyptian rousette bats from West Africa
Authors: Brian R. Amman1 , Brian H. Bird2, Ibrahim A. Bakarr3, James Bangura2,4, Amy J. Schuh1 , Jonathan Johnny3, Tara K. Sealy1 , Immah Conteh3, Alusine H. Koroma3, Ibrahim Foday3, Emmanuel Amara4, Abdulai A. Bangura4, Aiah A. Gbakima5, Alexandre Tremeau-Bravard3, Manjunatha Belaganahalli3, Jasjeet Dhanota2, Andrew Chow2, Victoria Ontiveros2, Alexandra Gibson2, Joseph Turay4, Ketan Patel1 , James Graziano1 , Camilla Bangura3, Emmanuel S. Kamanda3, Augustus Osborne3, Emmanuel Saidu3, Jonathan Musa3, Doris Bangura3, Samuel Maxwell Tom Williams3, Richard Wadsworth3, Mohamed Turay4, Lavalie Edwin4, Vanessa Mereweather-Thompson4, Dickson Kargbo4, Fatmata V. Bairoh4, Marilyn Kanu4, Willie Robert4, Victor Lungai4, Raoul Emeric Guetiya Wadoum4, Moinya Coomber4, Osman Kanu4, Amara Jambai6, Sorie M. Kamara7, Celine H. Taboy1 , Tushar Singh8, Jonna A.K. Mazet2, Stuart T. Nichol1 , Tracey Goldstein ID 2*, Jonathan S. Towner ID 1 * & Aiah Lebbie ID 3*
Abstract/Summary
Marburg virus (MARV) causes sporadic outbreaks of severe Marburg virus disease (MVD). Most MVD outbreaks originated in East Africa and field studies in East Africa, South Africa, Zambia, and Gabon identified the Egyptian rousette bat (ERB; Rousettus aegyptiacus) as a natural reservoir. However, the largest recorded MVD outbreak with the highest case–fatality ratio happened in 2005 in Angola, where direct spillover from bats was not shown. Here, collaborative studies by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Njala University, University of California, Davis USAID-PREDICT, and the University of Makeni identify MARV circulating in ERBs in Sierra Leone. PCR, antibody and virus isolation data from 1755 bats of 42 species shows active MARV infection in approximately 2.5% of ERBs. Phylogenetic analysis identifies MARVs that are similar to the Angola strain. These results provide evidence of MARV circulation in West Africa and demonstrate the value of pathogen surveillance to identify previously undetected threats.