Sierra Leone News

Freetown, 09 November 2021 – World Health Organization has delivered 6.6 metric tons of emergency medical supplies to support the government and people of Sierra Leone in responding the 5 November fire disaster that killed and severely injured hundreds of people in Freetown. These lifesaving commodities were mobilized within 24 hours of WHO receiving a request from the Sierra Leonean authorities for urgent support to respond to the mass casualty incident.

On 28 September 2021, government line ministries, department and agencies in Sierra Leone along with partners in the One Health Platform – the World Health Organization, FAO, USAID, Breakthrough Action – commemorated World Rabies Day to increase public awareness and promote the sharing of “Rabies facts and not fear’, being the theme for this year’s celebration.

The Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) today declared measles outbreak in Kambia District. There have been a total of three confirmed cases from a cluster of suspected cases in Bamoi Luma in the district. The MoHS is working with the World Health Organization and other partners and has dispatched Rapid Response Teams to conduct detailed investigation of the outbreak and plan for a robust and timely response.

The World Health Organization Country Office in Sierra Leone has concluded a two-day high level technical and operational planning retreat with the Ministry of Health and Sanitation to develop and validate the key priorities for the Organization’s 2022-2023 biennial Operational Work Plan. The consultative process facilitated strategic discussions on aligning the Organization’s two years activities with the health priorities of the government of Sierra Leone.

Thursday 1 July 2021, Freetown: As Sierra Leone battles her third wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) in Sierra Leone with funding from our partners – GIZ and the German Cooperation - have once again supported the Ministry of Health and Sanitation with a donation of essential laboratory supplies that will help the country to respond to the third wave. The supplies include 82,000 sample collection kits; 1,620 automated PCR Kits (GeneXpert); and 10,000 antigen-based rapid diagnostic test kits (Ag-RDTs), altogether valued at $195,284.

Freetown, Monday, 13th September 2021 – The United States Government, through the COVAX Facility, has boosted the ongoing COVID-19 vaccination drive in Sierra Leone, with a donation of 113,490 doses of the Pfizer vaccines. This generous contribution from the US Government comes within a week of Sierra Leone receiving consignments of 151,200 doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, which were also supplied by the United States Government through the global COVID-19 equity scheme’s dose-sharing mechanism, COVAX.

Freetown, Tuesday, 7th September 2021 – The United States Government has donated 151,200 doses of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine to Sierra Leone to help accelerate the current COVID-19 vaccination drive in the country.

A sub-national polio immunization campaign starts today in Sierra Leone to protect an estimated 520,000 children under five years of age using the novel Oral Polio vaccine. The campaign will run for four days and will be implemented by national and district teams and frontline health workers that will go house to house in three districts - Tonkolili, Western Area Urban and Western Area Rural districts - to immunize eligible children.

With improved supplies of COVID-19 vaccines, Sierra Leone has commenced intensified vaccination exercise to bolster protection among its eligible population against the disease.

Ebola booster dose vaccination kicks off in Sierra Leone following administration of the prime dose of the Johnson & Johnson Ebola vaccine in May this year. Frontline health workers, traditional healers and commercial motor bike riders who received the first dose are now being given their second jab to maximise their protection against the disease. The target beneficiaries were identified as high-risk groups and selected for preventive vaccination to protect them in the event there was a cross border transmission of the disease which had re-emerged in Guinea in February 2021.