As the Ebola outbreak keeps ebbing and flowing a giant step has been taken to prepare Sierra Leone against infectious diseases generally - including the Ebola virus.
On Friday 22 January 2016 Minister of Health, Dr Abubakarr Fofanah officially opened Sierra Leone’s first ever research laboratory for infectious diseases complete to do genome sequencing.
Housed by the University of Makeni (UNIMAK) at its Sylvanus Koroma campus situated in Yoni just outside Makeni, the lab in early January carried out crucial sequencing of the recent Ebola cases in Magburaka to determine trend and source of the virus.
The $1million lab is a collaboration between UNIMAK and Cambridge University and is supported with funding from the Wellcome Trust.
A statement from the Trust says that in the longer-term, “the new facility will provide Sierra Leone with a greater ability to identify emerging infectious diseases in the earliest stages, increasing the country’s resilience to future epidemics”.
It says it is also expected to become a centre of excellence for research and teaching in Sierra Leone.
Ian Goodfellow, a professor of virology from Cambridge University, said that when Ebola first struck Sierra Leone in 2014, sequencing took four to five months to determine in the United States. The recent Tonkolili cases took less than two days to sequence which Prof Goodfellow said showed the virus was not a new outbreak and came from human - not animal.
“This is really difficult to do.Even to do this in the UK or the US they still haven't achieved this routinely. But we can do this routinely here”, the professor said, adding: “We can try to understand the immune responses to viruses here…We can try to identify new viruses”.
The new lab enables scientists identify how someone got infected with a virus and in some cases they can even identify the person who infected them.
The country representative of META BIOTA, a US-based science research organisation which is one of the partners who will collaborate to run the lab, said it would provide a big boost in the fight against infectious diseases in the country.
Prof Aiah Kpakima said they were trying to detect and prevent the next outbreak. “Because Ebola is an animal disease - it was a spillover to human - we want to find out which next virus will spill over”, he said. He said the lab had the capacity to detect 26 different viruses - in both animal and human.
The UNIMAK Infectious Diseases Research Laboratory will provide a world-class environment for the training of local scientists and will bolster the in-country capacity for ongoing disease surveillance.
In addition to Ebola, researchers will study other infectious diseases such as leptospirosis and Lassa Fever, as very little is known currently about these infections in the local population. The information they obtain will be made available to the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health and local healthcare providers so that it may be used to devise better diagnostic and treatment strategies.
Vice Chancellor of UNIMAK, Prof. Fr. Joe Turay said the laboratory “will be part of our contribution to building a resilient health system in the country. Our partnership with Cambridge, along with other foundations and institutions, is about supporting UNIMAK in providing the training, research and community services that will strengthen our health infrastructure for post Ebola recovery in Sierra Leone.”
Health minister, Dr. Fofanah said his government would “step up efforts to completely eradicate [Ebola] by enhancing disease surveillance, contact tracing [and] improving infection prevention and control”.
He said the lab was “a step in the right direction to eradicate the Ebola virus and to enhance preparedness and the reoccurrence of further epidemics”. He said the local availability of a genetic sequencing facility would provide real time mutation or evolution of the virus and would also make possible “a greater ability to identity emerging infectious disease in the earliest stages” and increase the country resilience to future epidemics.”
He said the location of the lab was ideal in that it was in a college or teaching environment. He said “the problem in the past has been that people come with the knowledge and technology and with time they leave with the knowledge and the technology”, adding: “this lab will help us detect and be able to respond to not only the Ebola virus but other viruses as well”.
The health minister said he had no doubt on his mind that the new laboratory would help should there be a new outbreak of Ebola or any other infectious diseases in the country.
Resident Minister, North, Alie D. Kamara said the lack of a laboratory made his region suffer the most from the Ebola outbreak and appealed for training of young people to maintain the lab when the expatriates would be gone.
The new state-of-the-art lab is designed to function both as a research and a training hub in the fight against infectious diseases.
(C) Politico 26/01/16
