Introduction
Outbreak and initial response
The West Africa Ebola virus disease (EVD) epidemic in 2014–2016 resulted in at least
28 652 total cases (15 261 laboratory confirmed), of which at least 11 325 were fatal
(case fatality rate ~40%).
1
During the epidemic, most of the cases were concentrated in Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra
Leone, with some cases exported to the United States, Nigeria, Mali, and other countries
around the world.
2
Cases of EVD began appearing in Sierra Leone in May 2014. MRIGlobal first deployed
to Sierra Leone in January 2015 and has maintained a presence in the country ever
since, resulting in numerous deployments for diagnostics, engineering and, now, training
teams (Figure 1). MRIGlobal provided assistance to the government of Sierra Leone
and international partners to implement diagnostic testing, training courses, and
other outbreak-related activities (Table 1). MRIGlobal supported the national and
district EVD surveillance databases and provided data for EVD surveillance, contact
tracing, case investigation, et cetera. It trained staff and offered support to members
of the National Rapid Response Team at the Sierra Leone Central Public Health Reference
Laboratory (CPHRL). It established, managed, and staffed EVD testing laboratories
in both Sierra Leone and Guinea (Figure 1). Initially, the mobile laboratory was in
Moyamba, Sierra Leone, but in April 2015 it moved to Lakka in Freetown, Sierra Leone,
on the same grounds as the CPHRL.
FIGURE 1
MRIGlobal mobile diagnostic laboratory in Sierra Leone. (a) Setup of the mobile diagnostic
laboratory in Moyamba, Sierra Leone, January 2015 (aerial view). (b) Setup of the
mobile diagnostic laboratory at the Sierra Leone Central Public Health Reference Laboratory
in Lakka, Freetown (moved in April 2015, photograph is from November 2016). (c) Interior
of extraction laboratory unit. (d) Interior of molecular diagnostics laboratory unit.
TABLE 1
Number of confirmed, probable, and suspected Ebola virus disease cases, number of
deaths and number of MRIGlobal staff deployments during the Ebola virus disease epidemic
– Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, March 2014 – September 2016.
Characteristic
Guinea
Liberia
Sierra Leone
Date of first confirmed case
March 2014
March 2014
May 2014
No. of confirmed, probable and suspected cases
3811
10 675
14 124
No. of deaths
2543
4809
3956
No. of MRIGlobal staff deployments
49
2
67
International partner training programmes in Sierra Leone
Numerous international partners developed programmes in Sierra Leone during and after
the West Africa EVD outbreak. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC), China CDC (CCDC), Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), World Health
Organization, Public Health England (PHE) and a number of other organisations developed
and conducted a variety of training events. The following is a brief summary of the
training activities hosted by international partners in Sierra Leone.
The APHL works to build laboratory systems in the United States and globally. Its
international work focuses on building national laboratory systems and expanding access
to quality diagnostic testing systems. During the outbreak, APHL, in partnership with
MRIGlobal, trained 26 National Rapid Response Team laboratory scientists and provided
consultation regarding the National Strategic Plan of Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Health
and Sanitation (MoHS). The APHL training ranged broadly and included basic bacteriology
courses, influenza diagnostics, etc. Each of these trainings had its own challenges.
Influenza diagnostics, for example, relied upon using ABI 7500 quantitative reverse-transcriptase
polymerase chain reaction machines that were not well maintained, and it was extremely
challenging to get reagents shipped in a timely fashion that maintained a cold chain.
The APHL closed their offices in Sierra Leone on 26 February 2019.
The United States CDC began working in Sierra Leone during the 1970s, establishing
a long-running research programme on Lassa fever.
3
As part of the 2014–2016 EVD outbreak response, more than 700 CDC staff served on
over 1000 deployments and, in 2015, a permanent CDC country office was established
to focus on the Global Health Security Agenda.
4
The CDC has established and supported training programmes ranging from field epidemiology
training programme to an ecology and molecular diagnostics training programme with
a university in Sierra Leone whose goal is to identify the animal reservoir of the
Ebola virus.
5
The CDC office in Sierra Leone has not published much information on their projects
in Sierra Leone; however, their office remains open and runs surveillance, capacity
building and epidemiology programmes. Programmes like the ‘Creation of a national
infection control programme in Sierra Leone’ and the continuing field epidemiology
training programme are indicative of the type of successful, ongoing engagements between
CDC and Sierra Leone.
6
China has a presence in Sierra Leone and the CCDC was a major international partner
during the outbreak. The CCDC built a Biological Safety Level 3-capable laboratory
space in combination with a hospital in Jui, a suburban neighbourhood to the east
of Freetown and has been operating both since the early stages of the outbreak. Multiple
teams of Chinese researchers and clinicians have rotated through the facilities and
have maintained a consistent presence following the end of the EVD outbreak. In a
recent press release, the director of the CCDC noted that more than 60 Chinese experts
have been sent to Sierra Leone, and 30 Sierra Leoneans have studied and trained in
China. CCDC supports ongoing national surveillance for Ebola, dengue fever, yellow
fever, Zika and Lassa fever.
7
Public Health England set out to renovate multiple Sierra Leone government laboratories
in Sierra Leone, including the Connaught Hospital laboratory, the largest in Freetown.
The PHE training programme focused on training national laboratory staff to international
safety and quality standards, while teaching principles of molecular testing for Ebola
virus and other high-consequence pathogens. The training was broken down into theory
training and practical training. Theory training consisted of three sections: general
information, a molecular theory course lasting two and half weeks and a molecular
virology short course. Theory training occurred on multiple occasions, and the usual
number of trainees at each session was approximately 15. Practical training lasted
six weeks and was performed at three different government laboratories across Sierra
Leone. At each site,
8,9
trainees were trained and had supervised work experience and competence assessments
performed by the PHE trainers. Additional support and training were given on alternative
assays and platforms as well as maintenance support. Unfortunately, PHE has not published
any reports on their training programmes, but it is the author’s opinion that the
PHE trainers were of good quality and had developed a quality training programme.
Public Health England is still supporting the renovated hospital laboratories. It
is the author’s opinion that renovating hospital laboratories provides better return
on investment than the construction or renovation of central or national public health
laboratories in many circumstances, including in Sierra Leone.
Challenges and future directions
Overall, there was little standardisation of programmes, materials or contact time
with trainees between partner training programmes. Training materials and schedules
occurred with very minimal input from the MoHS. Also, although two trainees may have
similar certificates, the lack of standardisation of training programmes makes it
difficult to compare skills between trainees. To this end, the author thinks it would
be valuable for both the host country and partners to work together to standardise
all training programmes and materials for training purposes as much as possible. The
adage ‘practice makes perfect’ rings true in all molecular diagnostics training events
and continued refreshers are extremely valuable if possible. When possible, the MoHS
should require partners to use standardised procedures and assays. During the EVD
outbreak, numerous organisations brought in their own proprietary assays, many of
which were not commercially available. Trainees were trained on numerous assay platforms,
and while this was necessary during the outbreak, it has been problematic during the
post-outbreak capacity building phase. Staffing, purchasing, logistics and refresher
training would all be easier to achieve with standard assays in place, used by all
partners, as dictated by the MoHS.
Ideally, the MoHS should be in charge of: developing and providing training materials
and standard operating procedures that are easily adaptable to all laboratories; providing
individualised training assessments to guide personalised future training as well
as laboratory operations refresher training on a regular basis. MoHS should also verify
that implemented procedures are routinely performed. A comprehensive external quality
assessment programme for all government laboratories would be an incredible accomplishment.
This will more than likely happen very slowly, and there is always a risk that it
may not happen at all. Therefore, it is recommended that partners organise with the
MoHS to standardise and make the post-outbreak capacity building phase more efficient.
MRIGlobal training history
As the EVD outbreak resolved and EVD cases decreased, the rapid diagnostic response
also evolved. The MRIGlobal mobile diagnostic laboratory was one of the laboratories
that was moved (from Moyamba to Lakka). Toward the end of the outbreak, there were
far fewer blood samples being tested, and as the need for urgent response diminished,
the focus turned to permanent transitioning of laboratories to the MoHS and training
of the MoHS National Rapid Response Team.
MRIGlobal is an independent, not-for-profit organisation that performs aspects of
laboratory design, operations, biosafety and security, research and diagnostics for
government, academia and industry in the United States and internationally. MRIGlobal
conducted training at the mobile diagnostic laboratory at CPHRL in Lakka during the
outbreak. The duration of the training was six weeks and training components included
didactic and kinesthetic training, laboratory simulations and continual refresher
training based on molecular diagnostics testing for EVD. A total of eight graduates
were trained using a wide variety of materials. Trainees also received quality assurance,
quality control and biosafety training, which were rarely included in other partner
training.
MRIGlobal training programme
Disease surveillance systems in West Africa grapple with the problem of how to function,
train and persist in resource-poor settings. It is vital for surveillance systems,
especially surveillance systems in resource-poor settings, to increase capacity efficiently
by building or repurposing infrastructure. However, often funding for infrastructure
is limited and can be difficult to sustain; therefore, comprehensive training of professional
staff is more likely to give a better return on investment.
With support from the United States Defense Threat Reduction Agency, and MRIGlobal,
the Sierra Leone MoHS has developed a training programme to assist in disease surveillance
in West Africa. The MRIGlobal molecular diagnostics training curriculum includes:
PowerPoint lectures, hardcopy handouts and notes, textbooks, quizzes and exams, as
well as all the physical training materials (pipettes, appropriate personal protective
equipment, molecular laboratory equipment, biosafety cabinets, etc.) to fulfil an
immersive molecular diagnostics (specifically EVD) training experience. The training
programme utilises team mentoring (usually a team of two or three trainers) and supervision
of trainees by subject matter experts, in which Sierra Leone MoHS staff are trained
by MRIGlobal staff. Participants were given exit surveys throughout the training in
2015 and 2016 which showed a high degree of satisfaction with most aspects of the
programme, including the length of the programme and the content (unpublished results).
A key strength of the training programme is a true partnership approach, which utilises
the use of onsite laboratory equipment to offer assorted training to Sierra Leone
MoHS staff, and a team model for mentorship and supervision. The author believes the
molecular diagnostics and disease surveillance training partnership established at
the Sierra Leone CPHRL can be used as a model for sustainable capacity building and
training in low-income and middle-income countries. Molecular diagnostics training
included, but was not limited to, the following topics:
Equipment overview, use, and maintenance
Laboratory workflow process
Pipetting
Decontamination
Personal protective equipment
Biological waste disposal
Introduction to RNA/DNA
Introduction to virology
Introduction to immunology
Introduction to epidemiology
Laboratory-acquired infections
Quality management systems
Specimen management
Designing a locally sustainable programme
The MRIGlobal mobile diagnostic laboratory that served as an EVD diagnostic testing
laboratory during the epidemic includes a sample extraction laboratory with multiple
biosafety cabinets for sample inactivation and nucleic acid extraction, a reagent
preparation space, and a quantitative real-time reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain
reaction space. The purpose of the diagnostic training being held at the mobile diagnostic
laboratory is to support the development of laboratory personnel and regional staff
associated with the mobile diagnostic laboratory and to help integrate it into the
existing CPHRL workflow.
Molecular diagnosis and surveillance require partnerships between laboratorians, public
health experts and government officials. In order to adequately train personnel, numerous
partnerships were established. Developing these partnerships served as the base for
the programme at the Sierra Leone CPHRL.
MRIGlobal subject matter experts were very mindful to consider feasibility, sustainability
and local relevance during the design of the training programme. This required aligning
with national priorities and resources. The major topics of the diagnostics training
programme developed are: safety protocols; laboratory orientation; reagent preparation;
sample receipt and inactivation; nucleic acid extraction; quantitative real-time reverse-transcriptase
polymerase chain reaction; data review, analysis and reporting; proficiency testing
and targeting mentoring.
Ethical considerations
This study followed all ethical guidelines for research involving no human participants.
Discussion
Effective, operational laboratories are the pillar of effective clinical and public
health systems, and are critical to the detection and diagnosis of infectious disease.
In a recent publication, another international partner stated:
The absence of staff, stuff, space, and systems needed to detect outbreaks of infectious
disease such as the recent Ebola epidemic in West Africa, and diagnose other medical
conditions has underscored the need to not only set up diagnostic equipment in places
where it is scarce, but also invest resources into training laboratory personnel.
(p. 102)
10
Laboratories worldwide suffer from scarcities of skilled or qualified staff. Payment
for laboratory technicians and other categories of laboratory workers is lower than
other specialties, and periodically delayed. Numerous times from 2014 to 2017 in Sierra
Leone, government laboratory staff went unpaid for months due to the inability of
the government to pay its workers. College-level and formal training opportunities
are very limited or non-existent. A large proportion of laboratory staff are chosen
without having the proper certificates, degrees or technical expertise necessary to
carry out their responsibilities, resulting in systemic failures. Training students
in diagnostic techniques is not an easy task. Expecting trainees to learn molecular
diagnostic skills in short courses of two to six weeks is unreasonable and not sustainable.
Even the best trainees require more than six weeks of training to become truly proficient,
which is why refresher training or continued oversight is necessary for success. In
order to truly make a sustainable difference regarding staff training and performance,
organisations interested in training should be very conscious of whom they select
for training, be prepared to provide as much refresher training as necessary and be
able to provide some financial incentive or balance the training with the daily work
tasks of laboratory staff.
Additionally, laboratory staff often lack access to adequate tools and supplies. Resource-poor
laboratories often use obsolete technologies, expired reagents and improperly or uncalibrated
equipment. The lack of equipment maintenance further erodes laboratory capabilities.
Electricity instability in many low-income countries results in power surges or outages
that damage equipment. Proper personal protective equipment is often lacking or compromised,
resulting in hazardous work conditions for the staff. Funding organisations need to
have equipment maintenance and replacement plans, as well as personal protective gear
and consumable requirements, in place before a training programme begins.
In many low-income countries, adequate space is difficult to find. Many laboratories
are located in small, cluttered spaces in hospitals. Often, laboratories consist of
a single room, and operations meant to be done in separate spaces are done near one
another. Many laboratories do not have a good water or electrical supply. Fuel for
generators is expensive and, while useful to keep vital equipment running, is not
sustainable.
Laboratories lacking trained staff, stuff and appropriate space often find it very
difficult to develop robust systems. Quality, biosafety, accurate recording and reporting
and a culture of maintenance are all critical laboratory functions; however, they
are often not clearly understood or are under-prioritised. National guidelines and
policies are often inadequate by international standards. Communication between Ministries
of Health and international partners is often lacking. With Sierra Leone, as discussed
above, numerous international organisations were training laboratory staff using a
variety of different techniques and materials. Communication was very important to
limit training overlap, trainee poaching and a variety of other potential misunderstandings.
Maintenance is difficult to instil, and without service technicians, eventually equipment
reaches obsolescence. Rust and dirt are constant enemies of laboratory equipment,
especially in non-climate-controlled environments. Performance skills of laboratory
staff can also decline without consistent use or refresher training. Without active
training, mentorship and quality management systems in the laboratory, performance
can diminish. Both equipment and staff performance decline, due to lack of maintenance
or skills usage, and are important considerations when establishing a training programme.
Summary
Following the West Africa EVD outbreak, a high priority was placed on the training
of staff and building or repurposing of infrastructure. MRIGlobal worked closely with
the Sierra Leone MoHS to develop a sustainable, replicable training programme for
diagnostics. With the proper prioritisation by the Sierra Leone MoHS and international
partners, sustainable gains can be made in the area of clinical diagnostics, which
will help mitigate future outbreaks. As stated previously, the author believes the
molecular diagnostics and disease surveillance training partnership established at
the Sierra Leone CPHRL can be used as a model for sustainable capacity building and
training in low-income and middle-income countries. It is also the author’s opinion
that long-term (10–20 year) sustainable engagement plans will be ultimately the most
successful in Sierra Leone.