Archives for May 20, 2025

Eight months ago we launched our Koinadugu College Green Yard Initiative for tree nurseries for afforestation and community sustainable food production(Agroforestry).

This student- led initiative in collaboration with Feeding Mouths, Filling Minds supported by staff and student beneficiaries of Project 1808, is geared towards addressing food insecurity, deforestation and climate change.

The ultimate goal being experiential learning and building a culture of growing what you eat, and eat what you grow among Koinadugu College students and extension through Project 1808, Inc. to the community, primary and secondary schools.

Koinadugu College is much more than academic teaching, it is about learners solving their own problems and developing sustainable ways of community restoration. We value leadership, entrepreneurship, sustainability, indigenous methods, Panafricanism and being global.

Yesterday, I visited the Infectious Disease Unit at 34 Military Hospital, and it gave me chilling reminders of our Ebola outbreak. I saw patients, some symptomatic and others asymptomatic everywhere, hospital beds and corridors full of people waiting to be treated for Mpox. Case management clinicians overwhelmed with cases. The lab is also overwhelmed with the number of cases that needs to be tested and the positivity rate of these tests as well

Kudos to the health care workers doing great work with limited resources, including resources for infection prevention and control. So please thank the public health workers deployed on Mpox control.

In January, just after we reported the first cases, I did a lot of national radio and Television engagements on Mpox. It seemed like the people had other issues to worry about and maybe the national urgency was not there too.

Now, the cases have gone past 1300 with active community transmission, and no Epidemiological links between cases established nationally. The National Public Health Agency (NPHA) has now elevated Mpox to a level 2 emergency (long overdue) with public health measures and restrictions that were also long over due.

With vaccines limited, it all left to us the people and the communities to do the right thing; social distancing, hand washing, avoid crowded areas, body contact & unprotected sex. It appears sexual transmission is a major driver as indicated by severe genital lesions among patients.

With the level of community transmission and how long the virus has been circulating without check, more genomic sequencing is needed to determine if variants is the same Clade 2b or a new variant has emerged.

Additionally, with the deep community transmission, priority should be placed on setting up community isolation and treatment center as opposed to active case search. By setting up such centers in the community specifically for Mpox, community members will be encouraged to go to those centers for treatment. Community based surveillance along with those community isolation and treatment centers will enable early identification and management of cases, which will prevent the spread of the virus and eventually lead to control.