Sierra Leone News

Freetown, 1 August 2014 - The WHO Country Office in Sierra Leone on 1 August 2014 donated a consignment of assorted items worth US$38,000 to the Ministry of Health and Sanitation. The donation is part of WHO’s continued support to the government of Sierra Leone in the Ebola outbreak response. The various items included 3,000 Personal Protective Equipment (PPEs) to protect health workers particularly those that are directly involved in the management of cases in the treatment centres, the ambulance and burial teams. 

Freetown, 9 August 2014 – The President of the Republic of Sierra Leone Dr Ernest Bai Koroma, on Saturday, visited the Ebola Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) at the WHO Country Office in Sierra Leone. This is the second visit of the President in 10 days. He made true his promise during his first visit on 31 July that he would be following up on the emergency response activities of the EOC.

Freetown, 11 August 2014 – President Ernest Bai Koroma made his third visit to the Ebola Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) at the WHO Country Office in Freetown today 11 August. The President last visited the Centre on Saturday 9 August. In today’s visit the President participated in the daily meeting where he received briefing by the Minister of Health and Sanitation Ms Miatta Kargbo and the EOC body on the decisions, required actions and measures agreed upon by the EOC members as well as progress and challenges in the response.

Freetown 8 April 2014 - WHO Country Office in Sierra Leone donated various personal protective equipment (PPE) in response to the Ebola outbreak in neighboring Guinea and Liberia. This second of at least 4 more consignments included more than 2,000 PPE suits, respirators, gloves, face shields, face masks, gowns , body bags and bio hazard plastic bags.

12 September 2014 -- Cuba is known the world over for its ability to train excellent doctors and nurses who can then go out to help other countries in need. And now it will send a medical team of 165 people to Sierra Leone to help in the frontline in the Ebola response efforts.
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As the Ebola outbreak grows and spreads, a small but significant group of people is also growing - the Ebola survivors. Emerging shell-shocked from what one described as a "glimpse of hell", the survivors have not found life easy on the other side of the Ebola ward.

Some in the community brand them as "witches" for surviving. For many, the faces they longed to see again while lying in the Ebola ward are no longer there. Husbands, wives, children, brothers, sisters, mothers and fathers have all been carried off to unmarked graves by Ebola virus disease.

When Ebola first swept through Port Loko District, Sierra Leone the rash of sudden inexplicable deaths was so shocking local people explained it as "a witch plane crash."
But as husbands, wives, aunts, uncles and children began to sicken and die they realized this was not a supernatural event but something very human that would take human actions to reverse.

“In our chiefdom we have the necessary structures in place — leaders of all the villages are part of the Ebola response and fully involved, we have an active surveillance approach, and the population is well informed,” explains Philip Musa Koroma, Deputy Paramount Chief of Nimiyama Chiefdom in Kono district in Eastern Sierra Leone.

Heads of agencies of the United Nations in Sierra Leone visited Kenema and Kailahun Districts on 30 June and 1 July respectively. The team was led by the UN Resident Coordinator, David McLachlan-Karr. The objective of the visit was to identify gaps in the Ebola response and assess resource needs. Outcome of the visit will guide the UN agencies in their resource mobilisation for a coordinated UN intervention in supporting the government and partners to curb outbreak of the Ebola Hemorrhagic Disease in Sierra Leone.

For many people, December 22 was the beginning of the holiday season. But for Rebeca Johnson, a Sierra Leone nurse who survived Ebola, it marked a return to work - and a new lease on life.
"I will take the work normally as I did before. I will wear the full PPE, but I won’t ever be scared again because I have immunity."
Ebola survivor tells her story