Objectives: Maternal mortality in Sierra Leone is one of the highest in the world and complications from unsafe abortion are one of the leading causes. This article reports the results of a 2012 study to assess the impact and costs of treatment of abortion complications on the country’s public health system, and estimate the costs of a shift to safe, legal abortion. Methods: Records of postabor...

Poor quality housing is an infringement on the rights of all humans to a standard of living adequate for health. Among the many vulnerabilities of those without adequate shelter is the risk of disease spread by rodents and other pests. One such disease is Lassa fever, an acute and sometimes severe viral hemorrhagic illness endemic in West Africa. Lassa virus is maintained in the rodent Mastomys...

1 SUMMARY  A total of 82 new confirmed cases of Ebola virus disease (EVD) were reported in the week to 29 March, a slight increase compared with 79 cases the previous week. Case incidence in Guinea increased to 57, compared with 45 the previous week. This offset a fourth consecutive weekly fall in case incidence in Sierra Leone, which reported 25 confirmed cases. Liberia reported no confirmed ...

The UK nurse infected with the Ebola virus while working in Sierra Leone remains in a stable but critical condition, the Royal Free Hospital has said. Pauline Cafferkey, a public health nurse at Blantyre Health Centre in Lanarkshire, had just returned home to Scotland after a three week stint at Save the Children’s Kerry Town treatment centre in Sierra Leone when she reported feeling unwell. Sh...