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People in Western Africa suffer greatly from febrile jaundice, which is caused by a variety of pathogens. However, yellow fever virus (YFV) is the only pathogen under surveillance in Sierra Leone owing to the undeveloped medical and public health system there. Most of the results of YFV identification are negative. Elucidation of the pathogen spectrum is required to reduce the prevalence of febrile jaundice. In the present study, we used Ion Torrent semiconductor sequencing to profile the pathogen spectrum in archived YFV-negative sera from 96 patients in Sierra Leone who presented with unexplained febrile jaundice. The most frequently identified sequencing reads belonged to the following pathogens: cytomegalovirus (89.58%), Epstein-Barr virus (55.21%), hepatitis C virus (34.38%), rhinovirus (28.13%), hepatitis A virus (20.83%), coxsackievirus (10.42%), Ebola virus (8.33%), hepatitis E virus (8.33%), lyssavirus (4.17%), leptospirosis (4.17%), chikungunya virus (2.08%), Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever virus (1.04%), and hepatitis B virus (1.04%). The distribution of sequencing reads suggests a broader spectrum of pathogens for consideration in clinical diagnostics and epidemiological surveillance in Sierra Leone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ebola virus disease reemerged in Western Africa in 2014. Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention dispatched the first Ebola virus (EBOV) detection team to run newly established Sierra Leone-China Friendship Biological Safety Laboratory. The aims of study were to understand epidemiology, clinical manifestations and survival time of EBOV in patient's blood. A total of 913 specimens were tested between March 11 and April 20, 2015. EBOV positivity occurred in 7.37% of the blood and 0.53% in throat swabs. Most commonly reported symptoms of laboratory confirmed patients were intense fatigue, anorexia, and fever. EBOV RNAs persisted in blood for almost 4 weeks and the real-time RT-PCR Ct values showed close correlation with the sampling time after onset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]