Brief reportEbola infection control in Sierra Leonean health clinics: A large cross-agency cooperative project
Section snippets
Project description
The MOHS partnered with a coalition of NGOs, called the ERC, UNICEF, and CDC to support IPC, perform EVD surveillance, and continue health care services at all PHU facilities in the nation. The ERC is led by the International Rescue Committee and is comprised of 9 other international NGOs with established health care activities in Sierra Leone: Action Contre la Faim, CARE International, Concern Worldwide, GOAL, International Rescue Committee, King's Sierra Leone Partnership, Marie Stopes
Conclusion
This project represents the first major nationwide program led by the Sierra Leone MOHS to address infection control in health care facilities. It was implemented by multiple cooperating governmental and nongovernmental agencies. This type of centralized, standardized program may be a path forward toward enhanced interagency coordination during the Ebola outbreak response.
An illustrative example of early program success occurred when 8 sick family members, 7 of whom were children, presented to
Acknowledgments
We thank the Sierra Leone Ministry of Health and Sanitation; the Ebola Response Consortium: Action Contre la Faime, Care International, Concern Worldwide, GOAL, International Rescue Committee, King's Sierra Leone Partnership, Marie Stopes International, Medecins du Monde, and Save the Children; and the CDC Sierra Leone Field Team. We also thank the brave health workers staffing peripheral health units in Sierra Leone.
References (7)
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 2014 Ebola outbreak in West Africa – case counts. Available from:...
Sierra Leone: WHO statistical profile
(2012)- et al.
Ebola virus disease in health care workers--Sierra Leone, 2014
MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep
(2014)
Cited by (17)
Personal protective equipment implementation in healthcare: A scoping review
2022, American Journal of Infection ControlCitation Excerpt :A graph of study targeted diseases and years of publication is shown in Figure 2. Studies from LMIC,18–39 from high income countries,40–82 and studies conducted in several income economies83–85 were integrated into the synthesis. Study settings were mainly hospitals.18,20–26,28,30,31,33,37–39,43,47–52,55,56,59–64,67,68,70,71,73,74,79,80,82–84,86–89
More PPE protects better against Ebola
2016, American Journal of Infection ControlPersonal Protective Equipment: Protecting Health Care Providers in an Ebola Outbreak
2015, Clinical TherapeuticsCitation Excerpt :The feasibility of such an approach in the field must be considered however because the countries in which most Ebola outbreaks have occurred are among the poorest in the world with the least developed health care infrastructure available. In Sierra Leone, a country already among the countries with the lowest health care expenditures (ranked 141 of 192 nations) and devastated by the current epidemic, the use of full containment PPE as recommended by the CDC and WHO was deemed neither affordable nor practical in peripheral health care units that were visited initially by many patients infected with EVD.38 Although the various forms of PPE recommended by the WHO, CDC, and Medecins Sans Frontiers (or Doctors Without Borders) all mitigate risks of exposure to infected body fluids while caring for Ebola-infected patients, the presence of PPE alone is not enough.
Building resilient health systems: Experimental evidence from sierra leone and the 2014 ebola outbreak
2021, Quarterly Journal of Economics
Disclaimer: The findings and conclusions in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Conflicts of interest: None to report.