Sierra Leone News

Freetown, 14 October 2015 - Preliminary results of a study into persistence of Ebola virus in body fluids show that some men still produce semen samples that test positive for Ebola virus nine months after onset of symptoms.

The report, published today in the New England Journal of Medicine, provides the first results of a long-term study being jointly conducted by the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health and Sanitation, Sierra Leone Ministry of Defence, the World Health Organization and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Tuesday was a happy day in SierraLeone as children returned to school after many months away due to the Ebola outbreak. Read how the Government of Sierra Leone, WHO and partners made that possible

FIFA in collaboration with the Sierra Leone Football Association, United Nations agencies (WHO and UNICEF) on 1 November launched the ‘FIFA 11 for Health’ programme in Freetown aimed at promoting healthier lifestyles among young people. The programme was launched by a delegation of FIFA officials led by the football legend Samuel Eto’o Fils.

As part of early recovery efforts, WHO continues to work closely with national authorities and partners in the 3 high-transmission Ebola countries on how to rebuild confidence and trust in health systems and services.
Nurse Sai Conteh works at the Kambia Government Hospital and needs to know what to do in case one day a patient with Ebola-like symptoms comes to the hospital. She looks back at what she has learnt and how different her daily work looks like.

Aminata Kobie is a health promotion officer in WHO Sierra Leone Country Office. When the first Ebola cases began to appear in May 2014 in Sierra Leone, Aminata travelled the country educating health workers and communities about the virus. As the outbreak spread throughout the country, Aminata spent months at a time educating her fellow Sierra Leoneans and visiting resistant communities where Ebola cases continued to occur.

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.

"Since Sierra Leone recorded the first Ebola case in May 2014, a total number of 8,704 people were infected and 3,589 have died, 221 of them healthcare workers, all of whom we remember on this day” said Dr Anders Nordström, WHO Representative in Sierra Leone.

Delivered by Dr Anders Nordström, WHO Representative in Sierra Leone

Today, 7 November 2015, the World Health Organization declares the end of the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone. 

Since Sierra Leone recorded the first Ebola case on 24 May 2014, a total number of 8,704 people were infected and 3,589 have died. From those who tragically lost their lives, 221 of them were healthcare workers. We remember them all today.

Freetown, 24 April 2015 – Despite the unprecedented challenges of delivering basic health services in an Ebola emergency, Sierra Leone will hold its first public immunization and health campaign over the next four days aiming to reach an estimated 1.5 million children under 5 with life-saving interventions.

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.

Following the start of the Ebola outbreak in 2014, the intensely-affected countries suspended all large-scale national mass immunization campaigns for diseases like measles and polio. This decision was made as a safety precaution because typically immunization campaigns involve large gatherings of people as parents bring their children to the vaccination place. During the time Ebola was spreading widely, health authorities warned large group gatherings put more people at risk of contracting Ebola.