Assessment of the Public Health Laboratory Capacity - Sierra Leone, 2021

Esther Debora Ngegba; Fengfeng Liu; Canjun Zheng; Alie Brima Tia; Chunchun Zhao; Chuizhao Xue; Lili Wang; Xiaopeng Qi; Anitta Kamara; Sheku Mustapha; Junling Sun; Mohamed Alex Vandi; Doris Harding; Fuqiang Cui

doi:10.46234/ccdcw2025.005

Assessment of the Public Health Laboratory Capacity - Sierra Leone, 2021

China CDC Wkly. 2025 Jan 3;7(1):21-26. doi: 10.46234/ccdcw2025.005.

Authors

Esther Debora Ngegba^{1

2

3}, Fengfeng Liu⁴, Canjun Zheng⁵, Alie Brima Tia³, Chunchun Zhao⁶, Chuizhao Xue⁷, Lili Wang⁸, Xiaopeng Qi⁸, Anitta Kamara⁹, Sheku Mustapha³, Junling Sun⁵, Mohamed Alex Vandi⁹, Doris Harding⁹, Fuqiang Cui^{1

2

4

10

11}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Global Health, School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing, China.
² Laboratory Science and Technology & Vaccine Research Center, School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing, China.
³ Sierra Leone-China Friendship Biological Safety Laboratory, Freetown, Sierra Leone.
⁴ Department of Health Policy and Management, School of Public Health, Peking University, Beijing, China.
⁵ Key Laboratory of Surveillance and Early-Warning on Infectious Disease, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China.
⁶ National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China.
⁷ National Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (Chinese Center for Tropical Diseases Research), NHC Key Laboratory of Parasite and Vector Biology, WHO Collaborating Centre for Tropical Diseases, National Center for International Research on Tropical Diseases, Shanghai, China.
⁸ Center for Global Public Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China.
⁹ Ministry of Health and Sanitation, Freetown, Sierra Leone.
¹⁰ Key Laboratory of Epidemiology of Major Diseases (Peking University), Ministry of Education, Beijing, China.
¹¹ Center for Infectious Diseases and Policy Research & Global Health and Infectious Diseases Group, Peking University, Beijing, China.

Abstract

What is already known about this topic?: Public health laboratories (PHLs) are critical for effectively identifying, detecting, preventing, and responding to emerging and reemerging infectious diseases. Following the 2014 Ebola outbreak, Sierra Leone implemented a national laboratory strategic plan (2015-2020) aimed at creating, strengthening, and maintaining laboratory capacities for detecting, assessing, notifying, and reporting incidents, with a requirement to review PHL capabilities every five years.

What is added by this report?: This study assessed the comprehensive capacity and personnel status of PHLs in Sierra Leone using a standardized assessment tool following the implementation of the 2015 National Laboratory Strategic Plan. Among 11 indicators evaluated, laboratory infrastructure and equipment, data and information management, experimental technical training, and laboratory performance received low scores. The assessment revealed critical personnel gaps, including limited staff with extensive work experience and advanced education. Additionally, laboratory staff demonstrated limited capabilities in specialized areas such as gene library creation, primer design, sequencing, surveillance, and field epidemiology and laboratory-related training.

What are the implications for public health practice?: Continued investment and capacity building are essential for PHLs to deliver high-quality testing services and effectively support public health functions. The identified gaps across various indicators must be systematically addressed to strengthen PHL capacity in Sierra Leone.

Keywords: Assessment; Infectious diseases; Laboratory capacity; Public health laboratories.

Grants and funding

Supported by the pilot project on building capacity of malaria molecular lab epidemiology network in Sierra Leone (INV-003421) and Peking University School of Public Health. The funders had no role in data collection or reporting