Sierra Leone News

The United Nations Joint Medical Services (UNJMS) hosted a one day Health Fair on 7 June 2013 with the theme “Spring to Health with UNJMS”. The objective of the fair was to promote good health by increasing health awareness among UN staff and their dependants as planned after debriefing of RPM 47 recommendations to involve the UN Country Team (UNCT).

Sierra Leone commemorated World No Tobacco Day 2013 on 31 May 2013 on the theme: “Ban Tobacco Advertising, Promotion and Sponsorship”. The Day is commemorated every year in Sierra Leone and countries around the world as opportunity for health authorities to inform all sectors of their populations of the dangers particularly the devastating health consequences associated with the use of tobacco products. The theme for this year’s commemoration is a call on countries to put a stop to all forms of promotion of tobacco.

The World Health Organization donated various items including, information and communication technology and medical equipment, reagents and consumables as well as other supplies worth more than US $159,000 to the Ministry of Health and Sanitation on 17 May 2013. The items included Interagency Diarrhoeal Disease Kits, 24 sets of desktop and laptop computers and accessories, Elisa Plate Reader, Tapes for Autoclave, broad spectrum of Kits for cholera control, 1 Toyota Hard Top, 1 motor bike, 2 Desktop OptiPlex Computers, Inter core among others.

The Polio NIDs campaign coupled with AVW was officially launched on Friday 26th April 2013 in Wellington Community Health Centre, at Western Area, in Freetown, the capital city of Sierra Leone by Dr Abu Bakarr FOFANAH, Deputy Minister of Health and Sanitation (MoHS). The function was well attended, with the participation of senior officials of the MOHS, Rotary international, WHO, UNICEF, parliamentarians, civil society organization, traditional and religious leaders among others.

Nutrition Stakeholders in Sierra Leone with leadership from the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS)  and technical support from WHO ended a 3 day micronutrient stakeholder consultative technical workshop on 12 April 2013 in Freetown. The meeting was held to engage partners to come up with concrete strategies and recommendations that will guide a successful conduct of the 2013 National Micronutrient Survey as well as to finalize the survey protocol. The opening session of the meeting was graced by Mr Foday Sawie, Deputy Minister-II of MoHS.

Sierra Leone conducted post epidemic evaluation of the cholera outbreak that affected 12 out of the country’s 13 districts with a cumulative of 22,971 reported cases and 299 deaths and case fatality rate of 1.30 between January to December 2012. The evaluation was conducted in March 2013 with the objective to assess the overall  outbreak response and preparedness with a view of documenting lessons learned, identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, and make recommendations.

The Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) launched the first Integrated National Waste Management Policy and Strategy, and an Integrated Vector Management Strategic Plan on 12 April 2012. The occasion was also used to distribute the Country Report of the Situation Analysis and Needs As-sessment on Health and Environment. The documents were launched by Dr Abu Bakarr Fofanah, Deputy Minister-1 of MoHS.

Sierra Leone will conduct maternal and neonatal tetanus elimination (MNTE) validation survey in April 2013. The exercise will be conducted in Port Loko District which has been one of the high risk districts in the country and will be carried out by the Ministry of Health and Sanitation with technical and financial support of WHO and UNICEF. The survey will target all live births delivered between 1 March 2012 and 1 March 2013 as well as women within the reproductive age bracket of 15-49 years.

The World Health Organization (WHO) supported the Sierra Leone Roads Transport Authority (SLRTA) to validate the National Road Safety Strategic Plan (2013-2015) in a 2 day multi stakeholders’ workshop held from 13-14 March 2013 in Freetown.  Some of the partners at the meeting included the  Sierra Leone Police, insurance companies, motor drivers’ union and vehicle owners,  health officials and line ministries, the local councils, civil society and partners including WHO among others.

In this Issue

1. Development of Sierra Leone 2013 Health Sector Annual Operational Plan
2. Sierra Leone develops Human Resource for Health Policy and Strategic Plan

Sierra Leone Newsletter: November-December 2012