October 11, 2020, marks the seventh month since the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared COVID-19 a pandemic. Unlike other coronavirus diseases, there is a geographically disproportionate distribution of the incidence of COVID-19 cases around the world. We observed a significantly high COVID-19 cases and deaths in countries and territories with no or very small number of malaria cases or no or low national TB cases in 2018. We speculate that the high incidence of COVID-19 cases and deaths in countries less affected by malaria is partly due to overexposure to malaria which led to the regular use of the artemisinin anti-malaria drugs as well as the regular use of bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine for TB prevention. The vaccine produced an almost lifelong immunity to TB and meningitis to its recipients. We are thus calling for a COVID-19 containment and clinical management protocol that will incorporate the use of the anti-malaria ACT drug cocktail and BCG vaccine on compassionate ground.

Abstract Though mental and substance use disorders are a leading cause of disability worldwide, mental health systems are vastly under-resourced in most low- and middle-income countries and the majority of people with serious mental health needs receives no formal treatment. Despite international calls for the integration of mental health into routine care, availability of outpatient mental health services and integration of mental health into the broader healthcare system remain weak in many countries. Efforts to strengthen mental healthcare systems must be informed by the local context, with attention to key health system components. The current study is a qualitative analysis of stakeholder perspectives on mental health system strengthening in one low-income country, Sierra Leone. It utilizes locally grounded knowledge from frontline healthcare providers to identify constraints and opportunities for strengthening mental health care within each component of the health system. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 43 participants including doctors, nurses, community health workers, mental health advocates, mental health specialists, and traditional healers recruited from the Bo, Moyamba and Western Area Urban Districts. Interview transcripts were content-coded in NVivo using both a priori and emergent codes and aggregated into broader themes, utilizing the World Health Organization Health Systems Framework. Participants described an extremely limited system of mental health care, with constraints and obstacles within each health system component. Participants identified potential strategies to help overcome these constraints. Findings reinforce the importance of factors outside of the healthcare system that shape the implementation of mental health initiatives, including pervasive stigma towards mental illness, local conceptualizations of mental illness and an emphasis on traditional treatment approaches. Implications for mental health initiatives in Sierra Leone and other low-income countries include a need for investment in primary care clinics to support integrated mental health services and the importance of engaging communities to promote the utilization of mental health services.

Ensuring availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all by 2030 is Goal 6 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Since developing countries especially in Africa would struggle to meet this target, this study was conceived. Hence, the study was designed to assess the water quality for physiochemical parameters around a mined out site in southern Sierra Leone with the view to determine their levels, determine related associations among indicators and explore environmental forensic options. A finite population correction factor was used to identify fifty (50) groundwater sources from one hundred and fifty two (152) in nine (9) sections of Moriba Town, in Moyamba District, Sierra Leone which constitute the sample size. The study assessed sixteen (16) High values with significant variance of water quality indicators of physical to chemical ratio were observed for pH, temperature, electrical conductivity (EC) and total dissolved solids (TDS) but no such observation was noted for turbidity. On the whole, the water quality was judged to be good, although more pro active actions were encouraged by the local people and the mining company so as to reduce contamination in some areas.

A year after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic much of the Africa continent started experiencing spikes in the number of COVID-19 cases and related deaths in what was referred to as the third wave of the pandemic. These spikes came right behind the heels of a second wave of the pandemic that barely went unnoticed in Africa. As of July 2021, Morocco, South Africa, Tunisia, Egypt, Nigeria, Libya, Kenya, Algeria, Zambia and Ethiopia accounted for approximately 86% of the reported increase in COVID-19; these countries were aptly described as being at the forefront of the continent’s third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Unlike those countries in Asia and Latin America that experienced what may generally being described as autochthonous COVID-19 third wave, Africa’s third wave COVID-19 cases are widely believed to have been triggered by imported cases. Africa like the rest of the world relaxed its COVID-19 restrictions almost at the same time; hence the continent’s spikes of COVID-19 cases and related deaths during the third wave of the pandemic have raised some questions.

The main objective of this research was to critically assess the impact of efficient credit management on profitability of commercial banks in Sierra Leone. For this purpose, the Rokel Commercial Bank was selected as a case study. Collection of secondary data was mainly from the five years financial statements of the bank for period 2010 to 2014, and annual reports of the bank. The analysis of the data was quantitatively as well as qualitatively done using ratios analysis and charts. Results show that profitability of commercial banks in Sierra Leone is significantly influenced by the efficiency of credit management. The findings from this study noted the need for banks in Sierra Leone to have in place a good credit policy in order to improve their profitability.