Abstract:

Sierra Leone (SL) is endemic for different major parasitic diseases, facing high mortality and morbidity rates, which are especially high in mothers and their babies. Enhancing public health capabilities is therefore of critical importance to tackle these public health challenges. As a result, a multidisciplinary team from different European universities, led by De Montfort University (DMU, Leicester, UK), is implementing a multi-phase intervention to strengthen the teaching and research status of medical parasitology in SL since 2019, in close collaboration with local parasitologists and academics from the Universities of Makeni (UniMak) and Ernest Bai Koroma University of Science and Technology (EBKUST). The different phases have been co-designed with academics at both Sierra Leonean universities, who identified their needs to strengthen capabilities in medical parasitology, and different schemes to build their laboratory capabilities (consumables and equipment), including a comprehensive refurbishment of the ‘Infectious Diseases Laboratory’ at EBKUST, which in turn will aid teaching of the relevant laboratory skills for detecting these parasites and provide their students with the necessary skills to respond to emerging zoonotic parasitic diseases. Future ‘win-win’ outcomes include undertaking collaborative epidemiological and parasitological research, which will benefit academics involved at participating European and SL universities, which in turn will benefit SL by providing the necessary skills to protect sensitive groups in this African country. The main source of funds have been provided by DMU’s Quality Research - Global Challenges Research Fund (QR GCRF, 2019-2021), which in turn facilitated the introduction of clinical parasitology practicals in different modules within the BSc Public Health degree at both Sierra Leonean universities, which are delivered with support from our open access e-Parasitology© platform available at the DMU website.

The impact of the QR GCRF 2020/21, even though the project is still under implementation at EBKUST, has provided a myriad of benefits in a short time, which could be distributed in the following two initial themes:
- Building capabilities. The Infectious Diseases laboratories at both Sierra Leonean universities have been provided with equipment and consumables to strengthen the teaching and research of medical parasitology. In addition, SL academics used some funds to appropriately refurbish the science lab at EBKUST to perform microbiology/parasitology practicals, which will have a positive impact to them in terms of accountability and academic career.
- Strengthening teaching capabilities. EBKUST is significantly strengthening its teaching status of medical parasitology with our e-Parasitology platform©, a resource that also proved pivotal to facilitate the continuous learning of this discipline during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Our project will deliver a third theme in the future, related to the provision of appropriate clinical and parasitology training at EBKUST, so they can provide their students with the necessary skills and competences to diagnose main and emerging parasites and protect the public, themes that will be delivered once the refurbishment works to build their Infectious Diseases Laboratory have been completed. This communication will present a full description of the works undertaken at EBKUST.

Keywords:

E-Parasitology, virtual learning, parasitology education, building capacities, Sierra Leone.