ArticlePLoS neglected tropical diseases2017
South African Ebola diagnostic response in Sierra Leone: A modular high biosafety field laboratory.
Article in PLoS neglected tropical diseases, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
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Who cites it
16 citing papers in PubMed.
- Research hotspots and trend analyses of maximum biosafety level pathogens: A bibliometric study using China's 2023 catalogue of pathogens as an example.Biosafety and health · 2026Article
- Assessing rapid response mobile laboratory (RRML) capacities in Europe and Africa to improve One Health disease surveillance activities and pandemic preparedness across two continents.One health outlook · 2025Review
- Effect of temperature and time on RNA detection by RT-qPCR in rodent tissue and blood samples stored in MagMAX™ Lysis/Binding Solution Concentrate: Considerations for RNA detection in specimens stored under suboptimal conditions.Journal of virological methods · 2025Article
- Invisible and undervalued: A qualitative study of laboratory workers' experiences and perceptions of laboratory strengthening in Sierra Leone.African journal of laboratory medicine · 2024Article
- Existing operational standards for field deployments of rapid response mobile laboratories: a scoping review.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Impact of wars and natural disasters on emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases.Frontiers in public health · 2023Review
- Do gastrointestinal microbiomes play a role in bats' unique viral hosting capacity?Trends in microbiology · 2022Review
- Clinical Laboratory Biosafety Gaps: Lessons Learned from Past Outbreaks Reveal a Path to a Safer Future.Clinical microbiology reviews · 2021Review
- Exploring the growth of COVID-19 cases using exponential modelling across 42 countries and predicting signs of early containment using machine learning.Transboundary and emerging diseases · 2021Article
- A Highly Automated Mobile Laboratory for On-site Molecular Diagnostics in the COVID-19 Pandemic.Clinical chemistry · 2021Article
- Screening High-Risk Groups and the General Population for SARS-CoV-2 Nucleic Acids in a Mobile Biosafety Laboratory.Frontiers in public health · 2021Article
- Field evaluation of a mobile biosafety laboratory in Senegal to strengthen rapid disease outbreak response and monitoring.African journal of laboratory medicine · 2020Article
- Article
- Mobile High-Containment Biological Laboratories Deployment: Opportunities and Challenges in Expeditionary Deployments to Outbreak Response.Applied biosafety : journal of the American Biological Safety Association · 2019Article
- Article
- Challenges and perspectives on the use of mobile laboratories during outbreaks and their use for vaccine evaluation.Human vaccines & immunotherapeutics · 2019Article
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29 authors.
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Abstract
backgroundIn August 2014, the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) in South Africa established a modular high-biosafety field Ebola diagnostic laboratory (SA FEDL) near Freetown, Sierra Leone in response to the rapidly increasing number of Ebola virus disease (EVD) cases. METHODS AND
findingsThe SA FEDL operated in the Western Area of Sierra Leone, which remained a "hotspot" of the EVD epidemic for months. The FEDL was the only diagnostic capacity available to respond to the overwhelming demand for rapid EVD laboratory diagnosis for several weeks in the initial stages of the EVD crisis in the capital of Sierra Leone. Furthermore, the NICD set out to establish local capacity amongst Sierra Leonean nationals in all aspects of the FEDL functions from the outset. This led to the successful hand-over of the FEDL to the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health and Sanitation in March 2015. Between 25 August 2014 and 22 June 2016, the laboratory tested 11,250 specimens mostly from the Western Urban and Western Rural regions of Sierra Leone, of which 2,379 (21.14%) tested positive for Ebola virus RNA.
conclusionsThe bio-safety standards and the portability of the SA FEDL, offered a cost-effective and practical alternative for the rapid deployment of a field-operated high biocontainment facility. The SA FEDL teams demonstrated that it is highly beneficial to train the national staff in the course of formidable disease outbreak and accomplished their full integration into all operational and diagnostic aspects of the laboratory. This initiative contributed to the international efforts in bringing the EVD outbreak under control in Sierra Leone, as well as capacitating local African scientists and technologists to respond to diagnostic needs that might be required in future outbreaks of highly contagious pathogens.
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