Sierra Leone News

FREETOWN, April 25, 2018 --- This week, 23rd-29th April, is African and Global Vaccination Week, when the World Health Organization joins partners, health workers and communities across the world to celebrate the critical role of vaccines in promoting child health and survival. The week has been gazetted by world leaders at the World Health Assembly and the African Regional Committee to promote and champion vaccinations, as one of the most important, cost-effective interventions for saving children’s lives, and keeping adults, communities and nations, healthy.

FREETOWN, April 29, 2018 --- This year’s African Vaccination Week, on the theme ‘Vaccines Work! Do Your Part!’ has been celebrated across Sierra Leone, including a major event to engage community and religious leaders, mothers and civil society organizations at the Satellite Hospital in Freetown. The event was coordinated by the Pikin to Pikin Movement and the Children’s Advocacy Forum with support from the NGO Focus 1000 and Niyel. 

FREETOWN, April 16, 2018 - Sister Hannah B. Palmer pulls on her boots, getting ready to set out on the latest field-level investigation of 2018. Her job is not easy.  She is a Midwife Investigator in Koinadugu, one of the most remote and geographically dispersed districts of Sierra Leone. Much of the landscape here is steep and mountainous, and the district has one of the lowest densities of health workers and clinics, both relative to its population numbers, and the size of its geographical terrain.

29-year old Alpha* is among the first patients treated for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) in Sierra Leone. According to him, the journey to treatment success at the Lakka Government Hospital in Freetown was “long and rigorous,” but one that would restore his life and dignity. 

FREETOWN, February 23 2018 --- Today Sierra Leone officially introduced injectable polio vaccine (or IPV) into its routine immunization programme to maximize protection against polio. IPV is used in many countries around the world to prevent the debilitating disease, and will now be available free of cost alongside the oral vaccine at health facilities across Sierra Leone. 

FREETOWN, 13 February 2018 --- Senior global officials from the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) Secretariat, WHO and the United Nations Development Programme have joined Sierra Leone's Ministry of Health and Sanitation in calling for accelerated action to reduce tobacco consumption in the country. The call was made at a major national meeting of stakeholders in the capital, Freetown today.

FREETOWN, January 15 2018 --- With support from WHO, Helen Keller International and partners, the Ministry of Health and Sanitation is advancing efforts towards the elimination and control of onchocerciasis, or 'river blindness'. The country has also launched its revised five-year National Action Plan (2016-2020) for Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD) elimination.

FREETOWN, December 15 2017 --- In 2017, a new programme was introduced in regional and district hospitals in Sierra Leone, to accelerate and strengthen emergency treatment for severely sick children. Supported by UK aid, WHO and partners, the Emergency Triage Assessment and Treatment Programme (ETAT+) has already shown extremely promising results, including significant reductions in mortality.

FREETOWN, December 4 2017 --- This November, Sierra Leone’s Directorate of Food and Nutrition with support from WHO and UKAid organised a five-day training for hospital staff on the Baby-Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI), which is an initiative pioneered by WHO and UNICEF to help maternity facilities become trusted centres of breastfeeding and mother/baby bonding support.