Sierra Leone News

Sierra Leone is now the newest of 38 countries in the WHO African region to have enacted a bill into law to protect its population against the harmful effects of tobacco and nicotine products. The Tobacco and Nicotine Control Act of 2022 was unanimously passed into law on 3 August 2022 by the country’s law makers

On 30 May 2022, WHO donated 900 oxygen cylinders with regulators and humidifiers to the Ministry of Health and Sanitation as a response to the need for oxygen in public health facilities across Sierra Leone. This is because the COVID-19 pandemic exposed gaps in the Sierra Leone health system's ability to respond adequately to patient needs, especially the provision of life-saving medical oxygen. Each of the cylinders been donated can hold 40 litres of oxygen. The total cost of the donation cost more than USD200 000.

Sierra Leone has completed public health risk profiling with aid of the Strategic Tool for Assessing Risk (STAR) and field testing of a new tool that will better position the country in terms of readiness to respond to the health consequences of disease outbreaks, as well as natural and man-made disasters.

“We’ve been at the forefront of the efforts to curtail this pandemic and we will continue to provide the best technical expertise to the government to effectively tackle COVID-19,” said Dr Steven V. Shongwe, WHO Representative in Sierra Leone. “At this stage of the pandemic, enhanced surveillance and strong laboratory capacity including genomics sequencing to detect emerging variants and improved vaccination coverage are among the critical support that WHO will continue to provide to keep the people safe”.

Sierra Leone has completed its annual health security capacity assessment and operational planning across various sectors aimed at strengthening implementation of the International Health Regulations (IHR) in the country.  The assessments and planning were carried out through a series of multisector workshops on global health security which culminated in the compilation of the 2021 IHR Joint External Evaluation (JEE) Self-Assessment Scorecard and development of the 2022 National Action Plan for Health Security (NAPHS) Annual Operational Plan.

Freetown, 15 March 2022 - One year ago today Sierra Leone launched the COVID-19 vaccination, days after receiving the first doses from the COVAX Facility and others through bilateral partnerships. To date, 1.1 million of the country’s 8 million people have been fully vaccinated and efforts are ongoing to increase vaccine uptake to reach a wider proportion of the population.

Twelve national research participants completed the third module of the Structured Operational Research and Training Initiative (SORT IT) to help in combating antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in Sierra Leone. The participants consisting of medical doctors, nurses and other public health professionals representing all sectors across the One Health platform were selected from the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS), Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Food Security (MAFFS), Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF). SORT IT is a global partnership coordinated by TDR, a Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases or TDR, Co-sponsored by UNICEF, UNDP, the World Bank and WHO.

Freetown, 24 November 2021 – In commemoration of World Antimicrobial Awareness Week 2021, WHO in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation marked the week with several activities aimed at raising awareness of the global public emergency threat of antimicrobial resistance, which is projected to kill 10 million people by 2050.

Freetown, 25th November 2021 - The World Antimicrobial Awareness Week climaxed with the scientific meeting which attracted participants from across academia, medical practice and scientific researchers who made various presentations that capture the status of AMR drivers in Sierra Leone, including the use of antibiotics in selected health facilities, HIV drug resistance, health financing and cost of AMR, surgical site infections and IPC strategies for AMR among others.

The World Health Organization has handed over a consignment of various laboratory commodities for COVID-19 as well as routine laboratory testing worth over $600,000 to the Ministry of Health and Sanitation. The donation is part of the Organization’s continued assistance to Sierra Leone to scale-up COVID-19 testing and confirmation of cases in communities and public health facilities at national and sub-national levels; heightened surveillance for Ebola; and, to ensure availability of critical laboratory testing services for appropriate patient management.