Sierra Leone News

Health sector response mounted, including preparations for targeted vaccine campaign

FREETOWN, June 14 2018 - The Ministry of Health and Sanitation today declared a measles outbreak in  Falaba district in the northern part of Sierra Leone. There have been a total of 19 confirmed cases this week in the Chiefdoms of Sulima (14 cases) and Mongo (5 cases), close to the border with Guinea. 

A measles outbreak is defined as three or more laboratory confirmed cases in a community or district in one month.

FREETOWN, June 13 2018 -  Sierra Leone has become the latest country to join the Global Quality of Care Network, which aims to ensure that every pregnant woman, newborn and child can receive quality healthcare, and to halve maternal and newborn deaths in targeted health facilities within five years.

FREETOWN, May 31, 2018 --- On World No Tobacco Day, the Ministry of Health and Sanitation joined WHO and partners in calling for a halt to the tobacco epidemic, asking communities, businesses, health workers and individuals to take a pledge to end tobacco use in Sierra Leone. Globally tobacco kills more than 7 million people each year, and is a leading but preventable risk factor for heart disease and cancer. 
 

FREETOWN, May 5 2018 - Midwives everywhere have jobs that truly matter, but in Sierra Leone, their role is even more demanding. The country has among the highest rates of maternal and newborn deaths globally, and it is estimated that as many as eight mothers in the country lose their lives every single day. 

FREETOWN, April 25, 2018 --- This week, 23rd-29th April, is African and Global Vaccination Week, when the World Health Organization joins partners, health workers and communities across the world to celebrate the critical role of vaccines in promoting child health and survival. The week has been gazetted by world leaders at the World Health Assembly and the African Regional Committee to promote and champion vaccinations, as one of the most important, cost-effective interventions for saving children’s lives, and keeping adults, communities and nations, healthy.

FREETOWN, April 29, 2018 --- This year’s African Vaccination Week, on the theme ‘Vaccines Work! Do Your Part!’ has been celebrated across Sierra Leone, including a major event to engage community and religious leaders, mothers and civil society organizations at the Satellite Hospital in Freetown. The event was coordinated by the Pikin to Pikin Movement and the Children’s Advocacy Forum with support from the NGO Focus 1000 and Niyel. 

FREETOWN, April 16, 2018 - Sister Hannah B. Palmer pulls on her boots, getting ready to set out on the latest field-level investigation of 2018. Her job is not easy.  She is a Midwife Investigator in Koinadugu, one of the most remote and geographically dispersed districts of Sierra Leone. Much of the landscape here is steep and mountainous, and the district has one of the lowest densities of health workers and clinics, both relative to its population numbers, and the size of its geographical terrain.

29-year old Alpha* is among the first patients treated for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in Sierra Leone. According to him, the journey to treatment success at the Lakka Government Hospital in Freetown was “long and rigorous,” but one that would restore his life and dignity. 

FREETOWN, February 23 2018 --- Today Sierra Leone officially introduced injectable polio vaccine (or IPV) into its routine immunization programme to maximize protection against polio. IPV is used in many countries around the world to prevent the debilitating disease, and will now be available free of cost alongside the oral vaccine at health facilities across Sierra Leone. 

FREETOWN, 13 February 2018 --- Senior global officials from the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) Secretariat, WHO and the United Nations Development Programme have joined Sierra Leone's Ministry of Health and Sanitation in calling for accelerated action to reduce tobacco consumption in the country. The call was made at a major national meeting of stakeholders in the capital, Freetown today.