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Background: Healthcare workers’ have increased risk of contracting the deadly COVID-19 pandemic due to their exposures to infected persons and their specimens. Ghana, like many other countries, has felt the devastating effects of this virus; it was therefore prudent to assess the levels of knowledge, perception and practice of Ghanaian healthcare providers on the current pandemic.Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study enlisted 979 healthcare workers’ in Ghana from 1st Apr to 20th Nov, 2020, via self-reported questionnaire. SPSS version 22.0 was used for the analysis. Responses were summarized using frequency and proportions. A chi-square test was utilized to test for association at significant level of p <0.05.Results: Out of the 979 healthcare workers recruited, 56.4% had good knowledge and 59.5% displayed good perception on the novel COVID-19 while 63.1% of them effectively practiced the expected precautionary measures. Age (p=0.001), gender (p=0.034) and profession (p<0.001) significantly affected the practice of precautionary measure among the health personnel. The respondents’ perceptions towards the pandemic were significantly linked to their age (p<0.001), gender (p=0.043), profession (p<0.001), type of occupation (p=0.001) and source of information (p=0.006). Also, knowledge significantly related to good practices but did not influence the perception of HCWs.Conclusions: The current study identifies that more than half of HCWs in Ghana have sufficient knowledge, perception, and practice of precautionary measures; however, it elucidates some significant concerns about the knowledge gap in this COVID-19 outbreak. There is an obvious need for progressive in-service training programs for the health workers to broaden their scopes on the risks and preventive measures.

Infectious diseases significantly impact the health status of developing countries. Historically, infectious diseases of the tropics especially have received insufficient attention in worldwide public health initiatives, resulting in poor preventive and treatment options. Many molecular tests for human infections have been established since the 1980s, when polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing was introduced. In spite of the substantial innovative advancements in PCR technology, which currently has found wide application in most viral pathogens of global concern, the development and application of molecular diagnostics, particularly in resource-limited settings, poses potential constraints. This review accessed data from sources including PubMed, Google Scholar, the Web of Knowledge, as well as reports from the World Health Organization’s Annual Meeting on infectious diseases and examined these for current molecular approaches used to identify, monitor, or investigate some neglected tropical infectious diseases. This review noted some growth efforts in the development of molecular techniques for diagnosis of pathogens that appear to be common in resource limited settings and identified gaps in the availability and applicability of most of these molecular diagnostics, which need to be addressed if the One Health goal is to be achieved.