Enabling methods for community health mapping in developing countries

Ansumana, Rashid; Malanoski, Anthony P.; Bockarie, Alfred S.; Sundufu, Abu James; Jimmy, David Henry; Bangura, Umaru; Jacobsen, Kathryn H.; Lin, Baochuan; Stenger, David A.

doi:10.1186/1476-072x-9-56

Cited by 37 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…The Kulanda Town community, located on the northern edge of Bo, became one of the major destinations for internally displaced persons, and the population has doubled in the past seven years (Ansumana et al 2010). Prior to the increase in population, Kulanda Town had little access to protected water sources and latrines.…”

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Water quality associated public health risk in Bo, Sierra Leone

Jimmy

Sundufu

Malanoski

et al. 2012

Environ Monit Assess

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Human health depends on reliable access to safe drinking water, but in many developing countries only a limited number of wells and boreholes are available. Many of these water resources are contaminated with biological or chemical pollutants. The goal of this study was to examine water access and quality in urban Bo, Sierra Leone. A health census and community mapping project in one neighborhood in Bo identified the 36 water sources used by the community. A water sample was taken from each water source and tested for a variety of microbiological and physicochemical substances. Only 38.9% of the water sources met World Health Organization (WHO) microbial safety requirements based on fecal coliform levels. Physiochemical analysis indicated that the majority (91.7%) of the water sources met the requirements set by the WHO. In combination, 25% of these water resources met safe drinking water criteria. No variables associated with wells were statistically significant predictors of contamination. This study indicated that fecal contamination is the greatest health risk associated with drinking water. There is a need to raise hygiene awareness and implement inexpensive methods to reduce fecal contamination and improve drinking water safety in Bo, Sierra Leone.

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“…Population growth has further strained the basic services available in this overcrowded settlement. In total, Kulanda Town has a population of about 3,894 persons in 637 households residing in 197 residential structures (Ansumana et al 2010). Residents mostly rely on groundwater for their domestic water uses.…”

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Water quality associated public health risk in Bo, Sierra Leone

Jimmy

Sundufu

Malanoski

et al. 2012

Environ Monit Assess

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“…Various kinds of public and private health facilities exist in the city; however, no tabular or spatial database exists listing such facilities. This lack of baseline data is a major hurdle in implementation of health GIS in many developing countries, including linking of spatially referenced health-facility information with their catchment areas using maps created by using high-resolution satellite imagery in conjunction with census data [4,5].…”

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Spatial distribution of health facilities in Islamabad, Pakistan

Ma¹

2013

East Mediterr Health J

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There are no comprehensive, spatially referenced databases of public and private health facilities in any of the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean Region. This study in Pakistan was conducted to demonstrate the feasibility of creating a spatially referenced health facility database for a medium-sized city, in a low-cost, non-resource intensive manner and to visualize the spatial relationship between hospitals and clinics in the city of Islamabad. Cumulatively, 166 (77.6% of all clinics mapped) were in close proximity (within 1 km) to a hospital. Repeating such studies elsewhere would help us to better understand different spatial distribution patterns, the reasons for them and the implications for health-care planning. RÉSUMÉ Il n'existe pas de bases de données exhaustives référençant la répartition spatiale des établissements de santé publics et privés des pays de la Région de la Méditerranée orientale. La présente étude menée au Pakistan visait à démontrer la faisabilité de la création d'une base de données fournissant les références spatiales des établissements de santé dans une ville de taille moyenne, sur un mode économique et nécessitant peu de ressources pour visualiser les liens spatiaux entre les hôpitaux et les établissements de soins dans la ville d'Islamabad. Au total, 166 établissements de soins cartographiés (77,6 %) étaient situés à proximité d'un hôpital (moins d'un kilomètre). Reproduire de telles études ailleurs permettrait de mieux comprendre les différentes répartitions spatiales, les raisons motivant ces répartitions et les implications pour la planification des soins de santé. ‫باكستان‬ ‫أباد،‬ ‫إسالم‬ ‫يف‬ ‫الصحية‬ ‫للمرافق‬ ‫املكاين‬ ‫التوزيع‬

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“…Mercy Hospital is a small private hospital in Bo, Sierra Leone, that refers about 2,000 patients per year to its own clinical laboratory for testing (1). Prior to the 2014 EVD outbreak, Mercy Hospital Research Laboratory (MHRL) initiated a communitybased research study that included use of BioFire's FilmArray instrument and the associated BioThreat (BT) Panel in a "researchonly" (rather than diagnostic) capacity.…”

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Use of the FilmArray System for Detection of Zaire ebolavirus in a Small Hospital in Bo, Sierra Leone

et al. 2015

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Laboratories associated with small hospitals often have limited expertise, personnel, and equipment to rapidly identify rare and emerging infectious diseases. We describe the successful use of the FilmArray system for rapid detection of Ebola virus directly from clinical samples in 6 out of 83 tested subjects in a small health care center in Sierra Leone. Clinical diagnostic laboratories associated with small health care facilities often lack the personnel, resources, and expertise for rapid identification of rare or emerging infectious diseases, relying instead on reference diagnostic laboratories for specialized tests. In developing countries, especially in outbreak situations, this strategy can cause significant delays in isolation and treatment of infected (and potentially highly infectious) individuals. The ability for a small clinical lab to identify persons infected with a sporadic or epidemic pathogen, while maintaining a low logistical burden, would be of great advantage in remote or resource-limited regions, where patients with high-impact pathogens are encountered infrequently. This study describes the deployment and use of the FilmArray multiplex PCR instrument for detection of Zaire ebolavirus in patients and health care workers (HCWs) suspected to have Ebola virus disease (EVD) in Mercy Hospital in Bo, Sierra Leone.Study. Mercy Hospital is a small private hospital in Bo, Sierra Leone, that refers about 2,000 patients per year to its own clinical laboratory for testing (1). Prior to the 2014 EVD outbreak, Mercy Hospital Research Laboratory (MHRL) initiated a communitybased research study that included use of BioFire's FilmArray instrument and the associated BioThreat (BT) Panel in a "researchonly" (rather than diagnostic) capacity. The research protocol was approved by the Sierra Leone Ethics and Scientific Review Committee (SLESRC) and by the institutional review boards of Njala University, George Mason University, and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. Infectious agent detection using the BT Panel is based on nested PCR (coupled with reverse transcription for RNA viruses) and melting curve analysis for amplicon discrimination (2). The BT Panel simultaneously tests for 16 pathogens, including Zaire ebolavirus; analysis is complete within 60 min, and the system yields a dichotomous detected/not detected result for each of the 16 targets tested. Given that this test requires only simple handling steps-dilution of whole blood and loading of the specimen into the test pouch-and an identical assay (the BioThreat-E test, limited to reporting results for Zaire ebolavirus) has recently received emergency use authorization (EUA) for use in the current outbreak in West Africa (3), we sought to detect the occurrence of Zaire ebolavirus among persons referred to the MHRL facilities for diagnostic testing and to assess the system's utility under conditions of sporadic use. No medical decisions were based on the BT Panel testing results.

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Enabling methods for community health mapping in developing countries

Cited by 37 publications

References 15 publications

Water quality associated public health risk in Bo, Sierra Leone

Water quality associated public health risk in Bo, Sierra Leone

Spatial distribution of health facilities in Islamabad, Pakistan

Use of the FilmArray System for Detection of Zaire ebolavirus in a Small Hospital in Bo, Sierra Leone

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