Sierra Leone News

The Pharmacy Board of Sierra Leone started a two day training workshop on Drug Safety Monitoring for healthcare providers in Freetown on 11 August 2010. The training is aimed at improving surveillance, monitoring and reporting practices of healthcare providers on the adverse reaction of pharmaceutical products.

The Health Education Division of the Ministry of Health and sanitation with support from the World Health Organization is developing a Five year National Health Promotion strategic Plan 2012-2017 that will guide health promotion activities in the country. The plan hopes to address risk factors and determi-nants of health that contribute to ill-health and premature deaths. It also articulates advocacy for sustained health promo-tion practices, documentation and dissemination of evidence based health information.

The Sierra Leone Traditional Healers Association with support from WHO and Concern Worldwide has commemorated the 10th African Traditional Medicine Day on the theme “A decade of Traditional Medicine: Progress so far” in Makeni, on 31st August 2010. The occasion was attended by traditional healers and medical practioners and partners.

Dr Alhaji B.M.S Turay, chairman of traditional Healers Association, gave the keynote address on the theme “Traditional African Medicine in Sierra Leone-The useful neglected partner”. 

The World Health Organisation Office in Sierra Leone on Wednesday 1st Sept 2010 organised a consultative meeting to obtain contributions of na-tional stakeholders on the Global Health Sector Strategy for HIV/AIDS 2011-2015. The national consultation is part of the global consultation process.

The strategy which envisions “a world free of HIV infections in which all people living with HIV enjoy long and healthy lives by 2015” was presented by the WR, Dr W. Alemu where he stated that the decision to develop the strategy was taken at the 63rd Session of the World Health Assembly. 

The World Health Organization in collaboration with the Mano River Un-ion (MRU) Secretariat and Ministry of Health and Sanitation conducted a four day Regional Conference in Freetown from 9-12 August 2011. The main objective of the meeting was to develop a strategic plan for the pre-vention and control of Lassa fever (LF) and other emerging infectious dis-eases in the West African Region.

WHO Country Office in Sierra Leone conducted orientation for representatives of a coalition of civil society groups as part of ongoing efforts to increase public awareness on the prevention and control of Lassa fever in the country.

The orientation was to equip the coalition members from different parts of the coun-try with the basic facts about Lassa fever which they could use to sensitize communities in which they work.

Proceeding of the National consultative meeting on the WHO Global Health Sector Strategy for HIV/AIDS 2011-2015, Sierra Leone

The national consultative meeting was held at the WHO Country office conference room on September 1, 2010. The purpose of the meeting was to obtain the contributions of national stakeholders on the global health sector strategy for HIV/AIDS, 2011-2015. The approach followed the guidance provided by the regional office to organize the consultative process.

The World Health Organization on Thursday 25th August 2011 donated various items worth more than US$155,000 to the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS). The donation included 3 Toyota Hilux vehicles, 30 Blue Trunk Libraries (BTL), 2 XL motor bikes and 36 pairs of rain gears to support the activities of dif-ferent programmes of the Ministry.

The items were handed over by Dr Wondimagegnehu Alemu, WHO Representa-tive to Dr Alhassan Seisay, Deputy Chief Medical Officer of MoHS.

The Ministry of Health and Sanitation with support from WHO hosted a one day advocacy meeting on Framework for Tobacco Control (FCTC) on 16 Sep. 2010. The meeting targeted parliamentarians, civil society, media, the National Revenue Authority. The purpose of the meeting was to sensitise participants on health risk associated with tobacco products and the need to control their production, processing and importation into the country. Presentations were made by experts from MOHS and WHO (WCO & IST/WA) on relevant topics.

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.