Conference

When the Ebola outbreak was confirmed in Guinea two years ago, one of the reasons the virus spread so quickly was due to the high amount of people traffic across the borders of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. To mitigate the introduction of new Ebola cases or other diseases by cross border travellers, the Red Cross has introduced a community event-based surveillance system. It is successful, in large part, due to the engagement of community members.

While the media's interest in Ebola has waned and headlines predicting a worldwide epidemic have fallen short of their prophesies of doom, countries such as Sierra Leone continue to be severely affected and impacted by the virus. Kidsave Sierra Leone in partnership with Village Care Initiative unwaveringly continues to fight to find safe and permanent homes for children orphaned by the ongoing epidemic. Currently we are operating in Freetown, Bo, Kenema, Sembehun, Pujehun, and Zimmi.

When Abibatu and Lanphia finally returned home from the field treatment centre where they came close to losing their lives to Ebola, they hoped it was an end to the terrible price that the virus which had robbed them of their father and two brothers had exacted from their family.

Instead, what awaited them was a second battle for survival against the disease – this time the struggle against stigmatisation and rejection by a community which blamed them for bringing the disease into their midst in Sierra Leone and sought turn them into outcasts.

WHO joins the government of Sierra Leone in marking the end of the recent flare-up of Ebola virus disease in the country. As of today, 17 March, 42 days have passed, two incubation cycles of the virus, since the last person confirmed to have Ebola virus disease in the country tested negative for a second time.

This latest flare-up of Ebola brings to 3 590 the number of lives lost in Sierra Leone to an epidemic that devastated families and communities across the country and disrupted every aspect of life.