Sierra Leone News

Moses Alpha Turay survived Ebola but lost everything that was dear to him. In the space of one month last year, his wife, his two children, and four other close family members all died of the Ebola disease. “My wife and children died at the same Ebola treatment centre while I was still admitted there”.

The United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response (UNMEER) was established on 19 September 2014, mandated as a temporary measure to harness the capabilities of all the relevant UN actors under a singular operational crisis management system to reinforce unity of purpose among responders and to ensure a rapid and effective response to the Ebola crisis.

Sierra Leone conducts immunization and birth registration campaigns for children under five

In Sierra Leone, the Ebola outbreak has affected all aspects of health care. Exact numbers are yet to be confirmed but it is clear that many children have missed out on routine vaccination services and birth registration during the outbreak. To counter this, mass immunization campaigns are being held to enable children to ‘catch-up’. In June this year, an integrated measles and polio campaign was conducted reaching 97% of children under the age of 5.

9 July 2015 -- In Sierra Leone’s Magazine Wharf community, people distrust the services set up to tackle Ebola. When ambulances arrive to take away those who are ill, patients, their families, and their neighbours fear they will never return or they will be mistreated. So, WHO and its partners held a demonstration to reassure communities.

Freetown, Sierra Leone – 4 June 2015: The World Health Organization’s new Representative in Sierra Leone, Dr Anders Nordström, today 4 June 2015 presented his credentials to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, in Freetown.

FREETOWN, 5 June 2015 – The year-long Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone has had a negative impact on basic health services, especially maternal and child health, with opportunistic childhood diseases such as measles and polio continuing to challenge an already overstretched system.
So, while continuing to support the push to zero new Ebola cases, the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, in collaboration with UNICEF, WHO and other development partners, continues to work to restore basic health services – one of the Government’s priorities in the early recovery from the health emergency.

Mr. Chairman

The Vice President Republic of Sierra Leone

Minister of Health & Sanitation

Representatives from the Ministry of Health and Sanitation

Representatives from the Local Council

Colleagues from the United Nations

Members of the media

Ladies and Gentlemen

On behalf of the United Nations in Sierra Leone, I would like to express my pleasure and gratitude to be here with you today and to speak on the occasion of the launch of the Measles and Polio Immunization Campaign.

Mohamed Sesay was once part of an eight-person team of laboratory technicians trained to test for Ebola virus. But as the outbreak exploded and more and more samples arrived, his team was overwhelmed. One by one his colleagues sickened and died. He too eventually fell ill but survived - and is the only member of his team left to tell the tale. Read it here.
"I just can’t remember how I got infected with Ebola," says Mohamed SK Sesay, the only survivor in a team of 8 lab technicians working at the Lassa fever laboratory at Kenema Government Hospital, Sierra Leone.

Before the Ebola virus arrived in Freetown, Sierra Leone, hospital nurse Adiatu Pujeh and her colleagues at the King Harman Hospital thought malaria was the most challenging disease they faced. But Ebola, which arrived in their midst last September, infecting Adiatu and killing many of her colleagues, changed all that.

In Ebola-affected countries, like Sierra Leone, the lack of running water can make hand hygiene a challenge. Hand hygiene is so important in public health that 5 May every year is marked as Hand Hygiene Day.