Sierra Leone News

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 World Health Organization in collaboration with the Mano River Un-ion (MRU) Secretariat and Ministry of Health and Sanitation conducted a four day Regional Conference in Freetown from 9-12 August 2011. The main objective of the meeting was to develop a strategic plan for the pre-vention and control of Lassa fever (LF) and other emerging infectious dis-eases in the West African Region.

WHO Country Office in Sierra Leone conducted orientation for representatives of a coalition of civil society groups as part of ongoing efforts to increase public awareness on the prevention and control of Lassa fever in the country.

The orientation was to equip the coalition members from different parts of the coun-try with the basic facts about Lassa fever which they could use to sensitize communities in which they work.

Proceeding of the National consultative meeting on the WHO Global Health Sector Strategy for HIV/AIDS 2011-2015, Sierra Leone

The national consultative meeting was held at the WHO Country office conference room on September 1, 2010. The purpose of the meeting was to obtain the contributions of national stakeholders on the global health sector strategy for HIV/AIDS, 2011-2015. The approach followed the guidance provided by the regional office to organize the consultative process.