INTRODUCTION The mortality and morbidity of Ebola extends far wider than those contracting the disease. Surgical activity in Sierra Leone has been severely disrupted by the epidemic. METHOD This is a retrospective study examining the effect of the 2014-2015 Ebola virus epidemic on surgical activity in a Sierra Leone's main teaching hospital. RESULTS The impact of national and local events o...

BACKGROUND Sierra Leone has among the poorest maternal and child health indicators in the world and investments in public health have been predominately to increase demand for services, with fewer initiatives targeting supply side factors that influence health workers' work environment. This paper uses data from the Quality Circles project in a rural district of Sierra Leone to achieve three ob...

BACKGROUND The Sierra Leone Demographic Health Survey 2008 found an HIV prevalence of 1.5%. This study investigates associations with HIV infection and HIV testing. METHODS Households were selected using stratified multi-stage sampling. In all selected households women aged 15-49 were eligible. In every second household men aged 15-59 were also eligible. Participants were asked to consent for...

There is sufficient anecdotal evidence that the prevalence of Non-Communicable diseases (NCDs) such as hypertension, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases, stroke, and cancer is on the increase in Sierra Leone. These diseases are strongly associated with common lifestyle risk factors such as smoking, alcohol consumption, a diet rich in fats, sugars and salts; and physical inactivity. If th...

An 80 bed treatment centre for patients with Ebola virus disease, built by British army engineers and managed by charity Save the Children, has opened in Sierra Leone. The centre took eight weeks to build and was the first of six British built treatment facilities to open in Sierra Leone. The centre also houses a 12 bed facility for healthcare workers and international workers affected by the d...

The recent Ebola outbreak in West Africa caused breakdowns in public health systems, which might have caused outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases. We tested 80 patients admitted to an Ebola treatment center in Freetown, Sierra Leone, for measles. These patients were negative for Ebola virus. Measles virus IgM was detected in 13 (16%) of the patients.

As Ebola rages through Sierra Leone, local health workers are among the hardest hit. Data from the US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention show that nearly 200 health staff (different cadres) were infected between May 23 and Oct 31 this year. According to media reports, 12 doctors are among the country’s health worker cases, ten of whom have died. In early December, the Junior Doctors Asso...

BACKGROUND An EVD outbreak may reduce life expectancy directly (due to high mortality among EVD cases) and indirectly (e.g., due to lower utilization of healthcare and subsequent increases in non-EVD mortality). In this paper, we investigated the direct effects of EVD on life expectancy in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea (LSLG thereafter). METHODS We used data on EVD cases and deaths publish...

BACKGROUND We sought to determine the impact of the Ebola virus epidemic on the availability, uptake and outcome of routine maternity services in Sierra Leone. METHODS The number of antenatal and postnatal visits, institutional births, availability of emergency obstetric care (EmOC), maternal deaths and stillbirths were assessed by month, by districts and by level of healthcare for 10 months ...

BACKGROUND The Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method has been fruitfully used in many countries in Asia, Europe and North America to shed light on the efficiency of health facilities and programmes. There is, however, a dearth of such studies in countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Since hospitals and health centres are important instruments in the efforts to scale up pro-poor cost-effective inter...