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Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a serious public health challenge the world over, has led to significant health concerns in Sierra Leone. In the present study, epidemic indices, such as the number of cases, positivity rate, reproduction rate (R0), case fatality rate (CFR), age, and sex, were used to characterize the epidemiological trends of COVID-19. As of October 31, 2021, a total of 6,398 cases and 121 related deaths had been confirmed. The total number of COVID-19 reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) tests conducted to October 31, 2021, was 249,534, and the average positivity rate was 2.56%. Three waves of COVID-19 were recorded, occurring during weeks 15–46 in 2020 (2,351 cases), week 47 in 2020 to week 15 in 2021 (1,654 cases), and weeks 17–43 in 2021 (2,354 cases), respectively. Remarkably, there was no increase in the numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases despite rising test numbers throughout the three waves. Moreover, three high R0 values were obser ....
2Central Tuberculosis Reference Laboratory (CTRL), Dar es Salaam, Tanzania; 3School of Life Science and Bioengineering, Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology, Arusha, Tanzania; 4University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Canada; 5Department of Epidemiology and Statistics, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania Correspondence: Nicholaus P Mnyambwa Email lodnicho@gmail.com Introduction: Antimicrobial resistance is one of the biggest threats of modern public health. Although sub-Saharan Africa is highly burdened with infectious diseases, current data on antimicrobial resistance are sparse. Methods: A prospective study was conducted between October 2018 and September 2019 to assess the antibiotic susceptibility patterns of clinical bacterial isolates obtained from four referral hospitals in Tanzania. We used standard media and Kirby-Bauer disc diffusion methods as per Clinical and Laboratory Standar ....