Sierra Leone News

The Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) in collaboration with WHO and other partners held a one day meeting on 24 January to disseminate the National Standards for Adolescent and Young People Friendly Health Services. The standard was developed by the Directorate of Reproductive and Child Health with technical and financial assistance from WHO. The Stand-ards elaborates the key elements of quality services that are essential and that should be available, accessible and affordable to adolescents and young people in health service delivery points in the country.

Sierra Leone commemorated World AIDS 2013 Day (WAD) on 1 December 2013 on the theme No retreat on HIV. Deliver the promise. The event is one of the biggest health days that is commemorated every year in Sierra Leone and other countries to increase awareness and improve the fight against the HIV/AIDS. Every year the commemoration brings together local and international partners including the UN, the private sector and civil society.

Sierra Leone launched its first National Road Safety Policy, Strategic Plan and Trust Fund on 23 November 2013 in Freetown. The documents and the Trust Fund were launched by the Minister of Information and Communications Mr Alpha Kanu, on behalf of the President of the Republic. Delivering the statement of the President, Mr Kanu reaffirmed the government’s commitment to the full implementation of the Decade of Action for Road Safety and assured to “give serious consideration to proposals that will enhance the implementation of the National Strategy to achieve the desired goals”.

The Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS) launched Sierra Leone’s national Policy and a five year Strategic Plan (2013-2017) on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) on 6 September 2013. The documents were launched by the Minister of Health and Sanitation Madam Miatta Kargbo during a symposium on the prevalence and burden of NCDs in the country. In addition a health fair was held to raise public awareness on the major risk factors of NCDs.

The United Nations Joint Medical Services (UNJMS) hosted a one day Health Fair on 7 June 2013 with the theme “Spring to Health with UNJMS”. The objective of the fair was to promote good health by increasing health awareness among UN staff and their dependants as planned after debriefing of RPM 47 recommendations to involve the UN Country Team (UNCT).

Sierra Leone commemorated World No Tobacco Day 2013 on 31 May 2013 on the theme: “Ban Tobacco Advertising, Promotion and Sponsorship”. The Day is commemorated every year in Sierra Leone and countries around the world as opportunity for health authorities to inform all sectors of their populations of the dangers particularly the devastating health consequences associated with the use of tobacco products. The theme for this year’s commemoration is a call on countries to put a stop to all forms of promotion of tobacco.

The World Health Organization donated various items including, information and communication technology and medical equipment, reagents and consumables as well as other supplies worth more than US $159,000 to the Ministry of Health and Sanitation on 17 May 2013. The items included Interagency Diarrhoeal Disease Kits, 24 sets of desktop and laptop computers and accessories, Elisa Plate Reader, Tapes for Autoclave, broad spectrum of Kits for cholera control, 1 Toyota Hard Top, 1 motor bike, 2 Desktop OptiPlex Computers, Inter core among others.

The Polio NIDs campaign coupled with AVW was officially launched on Friday 26th April 2013 in Wellington Community Health Centre, at Western Area, in Freetown, the capital city of Sierra Leone by Dr Abu Bakarr FOFANAH, Deputy Minister of Health and Sanitation (MoHS). The function was well attended, with the participation of senior officials of the MOHS, Rotary international, WHO, UNICEF, parliamentarians, civil society organization, traditional and religious leaders among others.

Nutrition Stakeholders in Sierra Leone with leadership from the Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MoHS)  and technical support from WHO ended a 3 day micronutrient stakeholder consultative technical workshop on 12 April 2013 in Freetown. The meeting was held to engage partners to come up with concrete strategies and recommendations that will guide a successful conduct of the 2013 National Micronutrient Survey as well as to finalize the survey protocol. The opening session of the meeting was graced by Mr Foday Sawie, Deputy Minister-II of MoHS.

Sierra Leone conducted post epidemic evaluation of the cholera outbreak that affected 12 out of the country’s 13 districts with a cumulative of 22,971 reported cases and 299 deaths and case fatality rate of 1.30 between January to December 2012. The evaluation was conducted in March 2013 with the objective to assess the overall  outbreak response and preparedness with a view of documenting lessons learned, identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, and make recommendations.