Sierra Leone News

Flooding from torrential rainfall is the most common form of natural disaster in Sierra Leone and regularly causes significant  damage and harms people's health, especially in poor communities and settlements. A new national flood emergency and response plan is now under development to help ensure the country is better prepared to prevent and manage floods.

Five days of Immunization Activities to deliver integrated maternal and child health services to all pregnant women and children less than five years ended today in Sierra Leone. The campaign known as Maternal and Child Health Week is undertaken twice annually by the Ministry of Health and Sanitation to improve access and the quality of maternal and child health services in Sierra Leone.

A global report titled “Mental Health Funding and the SDGs: What now and who pays?” was launched in, Freetown, Sierra Leone on 21 June 2016. The report prepared by Jessica MacKenzie of UK’s Overseas Development Institute was commissioned by the World Health Organization and the Mental Health Innovation Network with funding from Grand Challenges Canada. The Report highlights current mental health funding partners, funding gaps and potential new funders that could potentially improve access and quality of mental health services around the world.

In order to address some of the staffing challenges that affect Sierra Leone's health sector, a two-day summit attended by technical and policy experts from around the world was held in Freetown, Sierra Leone from 2-3 June 2016. The summit, organized by the Ministry of Health and Sanitation with support from the World Health Organization and the Clinton Health Access Initiative aimed to lay a foundation to improve human resources for health in Sierra Leone . 

Sierra Leone commemorated World Malaria Day 2016 with the launched of four strategic national malaria control policy documents during an event that attracted partners, government officials and the general public.

The documents included:

Sierra Leone is once again counting down the days until the latest flare-up of Ebola can be declared over. As part of the inter-agency response to the flare-up, dozens of people who were in contact with two individuals who had tested positive for Ebola were isolated and placed under medical observation. With the monitoring period now over, they are breathing a sigh of relief as their lives get back to normal.

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On 3 February 33 contacts were discharge from quarantine following the Ebola event that began on 14 January of this year. Their discharge after only three weeks from the confirmation of the index case on 14 January proves that this response did exactly what it was supposed to do – the rapid containment of infection to prevent further spread. The rapid identification and monitoring of contacts in quarantine was key. Four people remain in quarantine in Tonkolili until  11 February.

The Ministry of Health and Sanitation confirms a positive swab Ebola case after the death of a 22 year old female student at Magburaka town in Tonkolili district on 12 January 2016. 

A swab team collected a swab sample and after three positive results confirmed at an accredited laboratory in Makeni, a second accreditated laboratory in Kambia reconfirmed the results.

An integrated nationwide Maternal and Child Health Week campaign (MCHW) is underway in Sierra Leone aimed at restoring the delivery of essential health services which were interrupted during the Ebola outbreak. The campaign locally known as “Mammy and Pikin Wellbodi Week” is being conducted from 26-30 November with the focus of reaching an estimated 1.3 million children under 5 years with vitamin A supplementation and deworming with Albendazole. It also provides opportunity to reach children 0-23 months that missed other routine vaccination services.

Freetown, 7 November 2015 - Today, the World Health Organization declares that Ebola virus transmission has been stopped in Sierra Leone. Forty-two days, that is two Ebola virus incubation cycles, have now passed since the last person confirmed to have Ebola virus disease had a second negative blood test.