Sierra Leone News

Freetown, Sierra Leone – 17 August 2015: Use of rapid response teams and strong community involvement in finding Ebola virus disease cases and contacts is yielding results in Sierra Leone. An epidemiological week has now passed with no new Ebola cases for the first time since the beginning of the outbreak.

“This is very good news but we have to keep doing this intensively-working with communities to identify potentially new cases early and rapidly stop any Ebola virus transmission” said Dr Anders Nordstrom, WHO Representative in Sierra Leone.

Freetown, 19 August 2015 - The UN Country Team (UNCT) in Sierra Leone is shocked by the report that an 18-year-old girl, Hannah Bockarie, was brutally raped and murdered on 13 August 2015 at Lumley Beach, Freetown.  The UNCT condemns this horrendous act in the strongest terms and it calls on the Sierra Leone Government to conduct a prompt, thorough and independent investigation into the girl’s death and to bring the perpetrators of this heinous crime to justice.

Intense surveillance in Kambia, Sierra Leone, has revealed around 75% of deaths have been occurring in children under 5. Even though Ebola transmission was halted in Kambia last month, mothers still are afraid of Ebola and don’t take their young children to health centres. WHO epidemiologists are countering misperceptions to get mothers and their children back to the health centres and lower childhood mortality rates.

Freetown, 22 February 2015 -- Today, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, the newly elected WHO Regional Director for Africa, starts her four-day visit to Sierra Leone to get a better understanding of the Ebola response activities on the ground and reconfirm her commitment to the on-going Ebola outbreak. As of 20 February, Sierra Leone has reported 8244 confirmed Ebola cases, including 3066 deaths. While the number of new cases appears to be declining over the past weeks, a mixed picture emerges in different districts.

24 February 2015, Freetown - Today, the World Health Organization's Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, wraps up her visit to Sierra Leone, her first to an Ebola affected country.

11 March 2015 - In February 2015, cases of Ebola began appearing among the community of fishermen living in the coastal area of Aberdeen in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Over 20 cases occurred at the same time, suggesting they had been infected by one source, possibly an unsafe burial. WHO and partners immediately sent teams into the district to work with the community to identify all Ebola cases and those who had been in contact with them, to prevent further infections.

Sierra Leone celebrated an important milestone on Monday, 24 August 2015. For the first time in more than a year, there are no people being treated for Ebola virus disease and no confirmed cases of Ebola in the country.

A Nigerian mobile lab has been operating in Sierra Leone as part of the international effort to help test Ebola samples in the current outbreak. The lab saves critical hours by testing the samples rapidly and reducing the need to transport samples over long distances. The lab plans to return to Nigeria to work on Lassa fever when the Ebola outbreak is over.

30 June 2014, Freetown -- On 30 June 2014 four patients were discharged from the Ebola treatments centres bringing the number of discharged patients to 23.

The first to be discharged from the Ebola treatment centre is Victoria Yillia a 19 year old lady from Koindu Town in the Kailahun district. Quoting from her statement she said “I felt like I am in heaven when I was discharged”. She is now living in nearby Kenema district with her husband and mother in law.

Staff of WCO Sierra Leone went through a four day intensive training on the Global Management System (GSM). The GSM is a single and integrated management tool introduced to support the delivery of WHO technical programs.

Training on the GSM is an ongoing activity essential to the productivity for staff mostly aimed at new staff but also for existing staff willing to enhance their skills and competency. GSM users need to be familiar with the GSM environment and other supporting systems.