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The Institute for Global Health and Development

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://eresearch.qmu.ac.uk/handle/20.500.12289/9

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Author: search.filters.author.Bah, Abdulai JawoHas files: No

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    Social Sciences in Emerging Infectious Disease: The Ebola Disease Response
    (Springer International Publishing, 2023-01-01) James, Peter Bai; Lane, Rashon; Bah, Abdulai Jawo
    Emerging infectious disease outbreaks are increasingly prevalent, and the need to develop or strengthen existing health systems to effectively respond to a global health threat has become more apparent. Moreover, it has become clear the critical role social science research plays in exploring human behavior, cultural, social, and political economic forces that are equally important to inform emerging infectious disease response and recovery. This chapter discusses the role of social science research in infectious disease outbreaks, looking at benefits and current barriers. It further considers Ebola as a e study to illustrate how social science research approaches are used to explain the cultural, social, and political economic forces that explain community response and inform public health response to recent Ebola outbreaks in Western and Eastern Africa. Specifically, it discusses issues surrounding the origin of the Ebola virus, community beliefs and understanding of Ebola virus disease, surveillance, burial practices, the influence of politics and conflict on Ebola response efforts, vaccine hesitancy and Ebola survivorship relating to community stigma, as well as discrimination and health-seeking behavior. © Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023.
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    Patients satisfaction with free healthcare pharmaceutical services in Sierra Leone: A national cross-sectional study.
    (Springer, 2020-10-06) Kabba, John Alimamy; Bah, Abdulai Jawo; James, Peter Bai; Chang, Jie; Kitchen, Chenai; Jiang, Minghuan; Zhao, Mingyue; Fang, Yu
    Background Patient satisfaction is a critical construct of quality of pharmaceutical care in that it reflects whether a given service is meeting patients' expectations and consistent with their values. The government of Sierra Leone in 2010 introduced a free healthcare policy, which includes free pharmaceutical services for under-five children, lactating mothers, and pregnant women at all governments hospitals nationawide. Objectives The main objective of this study is to evaluate patient's satisfaction with the pharmaceutical services received from public hospitals implementing the free healthcare policy. Setting Four randomly selected public hospitals in Sierra Leone, one from each of the four regions, providing free healthcare services. Methods A cross-sectional design, using an interview-administered questionnaire, was employed in this study. Data were analyzed in SPSS, continuous and categorical data were computed descriptively. Responses to the open question were quantified and analyzed thematically. Adjusted and crude logistical models were used to assess factors associated with satisfaction, and significance was taken at p < 0.05. Main outcome measure Patients satisfaction with pharmaceutical services provided in public hospitals in Sierra Leone. Results Overall, 797 questionnaires were analyzed. The majority of patients seeking free pharmaceutical services were satisfied (n = 470, 56%) or very satisfied (n = 229, 28.7%) with the services they received. Pharmacy staff which includes pharmacists and pharmacy techincians demonstrated good communication skills while delivering services, but lacked technical details like; how to handle (n = 187, 23.5%) and store (n = 135, 16.9%) drugs and their potential side effects (n = 253, 31.8%). Low satisfaction was observed with the lack of private area for patients counseling (n = 474, 60.1%), and a convenient waiting area (n = 229, 28.7%). Respondents also thought the pharmacy was too small (n = 191, 24.6%) and with less than optimal lighting system (n = 120, 15.0%). Dissatisfaction was associated with college/university students or graduates [AOR: 0.211 (0.083-0.537), p = 0.001] and those with household incomes less than SLL 1,000,000 [AOR: 0.391 (0.155-0.987) p = 0.047]. Conclusions Patients were generally satisfied with pharmaceutical services received; however, infrastructural upgrades of the pharmacy like a comfortable waiting area and private counselling area within the pharmacy scores low in their satisfaction level. Improvement on the pharmacy structure, and motivated pharmacy staff with the right technical training will enhance the effective delivery of quality pharmaceutical care within the free healthcare.
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    Providing healthcare to Ebola survivors: A qualitative exploratory investigation of healthcare providers' views and experiences in Sierra Leone
    (Taylor & Francis, 2020-05-07) James, Peter Bai; Wardle, Jon; Steel, Amie; Adams, Jon; Bah, Abdulai Jawo; Sevalie, Stephen
    Although the experiences of healthcare workers regarding caring for Ebola patients during the West African Ebola outbreak have been explored, little is known about healthcare workers' experiences in providing care to Ebola survivors. We employed a qualitative design to address this gap in the literature. Healthcare providers described the health complaints of Ebola survivors as similar to those of ordinary patients, but disproportionately frequent and severe. During the Ebola outbreak, fear of infection with the Ebola virus affected healthcare providers' confidence to provide care to survivors leading to the provision of symptomatic or no treatment. At the close of the Ebola outbreak, healthcare providers cited previous experience in providing care to Ebola patients, being more knowledgeable, peer support, commitment to professional duty and the implementation of the CPES programme as motivators that helped boost their confidence to providing care. However, healthcare providers described the unavailability of medicines, the inability to undertake laboratory investigations, the lack of access to specialised care and uncoordinated referrals from peripheral health units as their current challenges to providing care. Such enablers and barriers need to be prioritised within the Sierra Leone health system to further strengthen initiatives aimed at improving healthcare delivery to Ebola survivors.