Sierra Leone News

Sierra Leone commemorated World AIDS Day 2011 on 1 December on a theme “Getting to zero new infection by 2015” with the campaign slogan, „Believe it! Do it!. The Day is commemorated every year to heighten awareness, promote the existing available services, advocate for positive attitudes towards people living with the disease as well as to reflect and renew commitments on the fight against HIV and AIDS.

The Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) completed a three day training workshop for the National Rapid Response Team members in Freetown from December 6-8, 2011. The training is part of MOHS’s efforts to strengthen the Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) programme in the country.

The Ministry of Health and Sanitation held a stakeholders meeting to finalize a draft Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) Plan for the health sector. The plan is being developed by the ministry in collaboration with its health development partners to measure progress towards achieving objectives of the National Health Sector Strategic Plan (NHSSP).

In this Issue

1. National Health Sector review
2. Independent Monitoring of National Immunization Days
3. WHO supports Blue Trunk Library in Sierra Leone

The National Health Sector Strategic Plan (NHSSP) of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation 2010 – 2015 serves as a guide in strengthening the health system in the country.

The Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) with technical and financial support of WHO and other partners on Thursday 27 October 2011 commenced a two day stakeholders meeting to validate Integrated National Waste Management Policy (INWMP) and Integrated National Waste Management Strategic Plan (INWMSP) for Sierra Leone developed as part of the implementation of the National Health Sector Strategic Plan 2010-2015 and government’s “Agenda for Change”.

With completion of the country compact, the Ministry of Health and Sani-tation (MoHS) initiated a process to develop the first Joint Programme of Work and Funding (JPWF), a three-year shared health sector plan. The plan provides a comprehensive framework for aligning interventions to sector priorities and links the long-term policies and development strate-gies as defined in the National Health Sector Strategic Plan with the An-nual Operational Plan (AoP).

The Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) in collaboration with WHO is conducting a combined external surveillance review and post introduction evaluation (PIE) of Pneumococcal vaccine that was introduced into the country's immunization programme in January 2011. WHO recommends external surveillance reviews every 3 years to ensure countries conduct high quality surveillance activities that can detect diseases targeted for eradication, elimination and control in a timely manner.

The National Malaria Control Programme of the Ministry of Health and Sanitation in collaboration with the World Health Or-ganization has conducted orientation of field enumerators to un-dertake malaria rapid impact assessment in the country. This is taking into consideration the recent increased financial invest-ment and coverage of anti-malaria interventions in the country which are expected to result in reduction of malaria cases and deaths. The assessment will be carried out from 6-9 October in selected public/private hospitals around the country.

The Ministry of Health and Sanitation in collaboration with its health sector partners is currently planning to undertake the fifth round of polio National Immunization Days campaign in 2011. The campaign will be conducted from 30 September through 3 October 2011 to vaccinate all children in the country below the age of 5 years against polio.

Sierra Leone launched the fourth round of polio National Immuniza-tion Days (NIDs) 2011 campaign on 2 September. The four days campaign is targeting to administer Oral Polio Vaccine (OPV) to over 1.2 million children below the age of 5 years nationwide to protect them from the wild polio virus. The campaign is synchronized with more than ten other countries in the West African Region to ensure all children under the age of 5 years are protected against polio and to break the chain of transmission in the region.