Sierra Leone News

• Sierra Leone becomes the first country, among those most severely affected ten years ago by the West Africa Ebola outbreak, to launch nationwide preventive Ebola vaccination, targeting 20,000 frontline workers who will receive a single dose of Ebola vaccine

The Sierra Leone WHO Country Office has made great progress in promoting physical activity in the workplace through weekly aerobics sessions and monthly walks. Taking inspiration from the DG, Dr Tedros, and the RD, Dr Moeti, and in alignment with the Global Action Plan on Physical Activity (GAPPA) mission statement, the office is working diligently to ensure all staff have access to safe and enabling environments as well as diverse opportunities to be physically active in their daily lives.

To enhance Sierra Leone's polio surveillance capacity, a team of Environmental Surveillance (ES) experts from WHO Regional Office for Africa visited the country to support the Ministry of Health and the National Public Health Agency (NPHA). The mission focused on improving the performance of Environmental Surveillance (ES) sites in Freetown, considering expansions to other towns, and building the capacity of local sample collectors and supervisors.

Sierra Leone successfully completed a nationwide Measles and Rubella (MR) Supplementary Immunization campaign, achieving 99% coverage of the targeted population, according to administrative data. This campaign, which focused on children aged 9 to 59 months, resulted in the vaccination of 1,336,845 children. Notably, the campaign also identified and vaccinated 16,132 zero-dose children who had previously missed out on essential vaccinations.