Development

A non-governmental organization, Aurora Foundation in-collaboration with Sam Skip has on Friday 18th March, 2016 held a one week Information and Technology (IT) training session for 85 youths of various learning institutions across the country.

The Executive Director of Aurora Foundation, Madam Regina Bjarnadottir said, Sam Skip is a shipping and logistics company based in Iceland and Holland. She confirmed that Sam Skip had been donating computers to charitable homes in Holland but has now extended their charity to Sierra Leone.

Although Ebola virus RNA was detected at low levels, more evidence is needed to better understand the duration and infectivity of the virus in breast milk, the guidance stated. Spontaneous galactorrhea also was reported in female survivors up to 9 months after symptom onset. Studies assessing the viruses’ persistence are ongoing.

Guinea reports 5th Ebola death as Liberia closes border

A fifth person has died from Ebola virus infection in southeast Guinea in recent days—raising fears of geographic spread—as the country monitors more than 800 possible contacts and Liberia closed its border with Guinea, Reuters reported in separate stories.

The latest case was detected in Macenta prefecture, about 125 miles from the village of Koropara where the four other recent Ebola-related deaths occurred, said Fode Sylla Tass, a spokesman for the country's Ebola response efforts, Reuters reported today.

The man had recently visited Koropara and had been in direct contact with the first patients, Tass said. He was buried in the village of Makoidou without proper disease-control measures.

Sierra Leone is recovering from the impact of the Ebola Virus Disease outbreak which struck in mid 2014. Before Ebola, the country had made steady progress towards a number of the Millennium Development Goal targets in the health and nutrition sectors like reduction in child and maternal mortality.  A 2014 National Nutrition Survey also confirmed major improvements in levels of under-nutrition. (Ref: Sierra Leone Ebola Recovery Strategy).

The health sector, notwithstanding the successes scored, has been faced with a number of challenges. In fact due to Ebola, by January 2015, a total of 296 health care workers were known to have been infected with the virus with 221 deaths (74.6 percent). The outbreak, health experts believe, led to a decline in the use of health care facilities for non-Ebola related health needs across the country.