Sierra Leone News

The Ministry of Health and Sanitation has launched a survey report in Free-town that established high prevalence of risk factors for Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) in Sierra Leone. The STEPwise survey, is a WHO standard-ized methods for collecting, analyzing and disseminating data on NCDs sur-veillances and was conducted in November 2009. The World Health Organisa-tion provided technical and financial support for conducting the survey.

In this Issue

1. National Health Sector review
2. Independent Monitoring of National Immunization Days
3. WHO supports Blue Trunk Library in Sierra Leone

The National Health Sector Strategic Plan (NHSSP) of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation 2010 – 2015 serves as a guide in strengthening the health system in the country.

The Ministry of Health and Sanitation on Tuesday 20th July launched the start of a four day national Influenza A H1N1 immunisation campaign. The vaccination campaign will target about 600,000 people including health workers, pregnant women and children age 6-12 months and per-sons with chronic disease conditions.

The Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) completed a three day training workshop for the National Rapid Response Team members in Freetown from December 6-8, 2011. The training is part of MOHS’s efforts to strengthen the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) programme in the country.

The world Health Organisation Country Office in Sierra Leone has donated several assorted medical supplies and essential items worth USD 160,000 to the Ministry of Health and Sanitation.

The items included anthropometric tools to be used to strengthen nutrition surveillance, life saving protocols and guidelines to improve obstetric care, drugs for integrated treatment of NTDs, motor bikes to strengthen mobility of supervisors to enhance immunization programme and computers with accessories to improve data management capacity.

The Executive Representative of the UN Secretary General (ERSG) in Sierra Leone, Mr Michael Voder Schulenburg and the WHO Representative Dr Wondimagegnehu Alemu, visited the National Reference Laboratory at Lakka on 8th August 2011.

The purpose was to acquaint the ERSG on the efforts of the MoHS in establishing a Public Health Reference Laboratory as part of the strengthening of national laboratory network. The site was refurbished with support from WHO, CDC, UNICEF and Global Fund through NAS and technical coordination by APHL.

The Pharmacy Board of Sierra Leone started a two day training workshop on Drug Safety Monitoring for healthcare providers in Freetown on 11 August 2010. The training is aimed at improving surveillance, monitoring and reporting practices of healthcare providers on the adverse reaction of pharmaceutical products.

The Health Education Division of the Ministry of Health and sanitation with support from the World Health Organization is developing a Five year National Health Promotion strategic Plan 2012-2017 that will guide health promotion activities in the country. The plan hopes to address risk factors and determi-nants of health that contribute to ill-health and premature deaths. It also articulates advocacy for sustained health promo-tion practices, documentation and dissemination of evidence based health information.

The Sierra Leone Traditional Healers Association with support from WHO and Concern Worldwide has commemorated the 10th African Traditional Medicine Day on the theme “A decade of Traditional Medicine: Progress so far” in Makeni, on 31st August 2010. The occasion was attended by traditional healers and medical practioners and partners.

Dr Alhaji B.M.S Turay, chairman of traditional Healers Association, gave the keynote address on the theme “Traditional African Medicine in Sierra Leone-The useful neglected partner”. 

The World Health Organisation Office in Sierra Leone on Wednesday 1st Sept 2010 organised a consultative meeting to obtain contributions of na-tional stakeholders on the Global Health Sector Strategy for HIV/AIDS 2011-2015. The national consultation is part of the global consultation process.

The strategy which envisions “a world free of HIV infections in which all people living with HIV enjoy long and healthy lives by 2015” was presented by the WR, Dr W. Alemu where he stated that the decision to develop the strategy was taken at the 63rd Session of the World Health Assembly.