Severity score for predicting in-facility Ebola treatment outcome
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Updated: Dec 12, 2025
Endotoxin Activity Assay for the Detection of Whole Blood Endotoxemia in Critically Ill Patients
Published on: June 24, 2019
Jia Bainga Kangbai1, Christian Heumann2, Michael Hoelscher3
1Center for International Health, University of Munich (LMU), Munich, Germany; Department of Environmental Health Sciences, Njala University, Bo, Sierra Leone.
Purpose:
Sierra Leone recorded the highest incidence rate for the 2013-2016 West African Ebola outbreak. In this investigation, we used the medical records of Ebola patients with different sociodemographic and clinical features to determine the factors that are associated with Ebola treatment outcome during the 2013-2016 West African Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone and constructed a predictive in-facility mortality score.
Methods:
We used the anonymized medical records of 1077 laboratory-confirmed pediatric and adult patients with EVD who received treatment at the 34 Military Hospital and the Police Training School Ebola Treatment Centers in Sierra Leone between the period of June 2014 and April 2015. We later determined the in-facility case fatality rates for Ebola, the odds of dying during Ebola treatment, and later constructed a predictive in-facility mortality score for these patients based on their clinical and sociodemographic characteristics.
Results:
We constructed a model that partitioned the study population into three mortality risk groups of equal patient numbers, based on risk scoring: low (score ≤ -5), medium (score -4 to 1), and high-risk group (score ≥ 2). The CFR of patients with EVD belonging to the low- (≤-5), medium (-4 to 1), and high- (≥2) risk groups were 0.56%, 9.75%, and 67.41%, respectively.
Conclusions:
We succeeded in designing an in-facility mortality risk score that reflects EVD clinical severity and can assist in the clinical prioritization of patients with EVD.
