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Sierra Leone launches nationwide Ebola vaccination campaign
December 5, 2024
AFP
Sierra Leone on Thursday began vaccinating thousands of health workers against Ebola, 10 years after it was hit hard by the disease. Along with Guinea and Liberia, it was one of the countries worst hit by the largest Ebola outbreak a decade ago.
Sierra Leone is the first of the three countries to launch a nationwide vaccination campaign, targeting the 20,000 people most at risk: first responders, traditional healers, religious leaders and security forces. They will receive a single dose of the Ervebo vaccine. The process began slowly on Thursday at health centres and police stations in the capital, Freetown, an AFP correspondent saw.
“The Ebola vaccine is a very good thing for us health workers ,” said Josephine Abdulai, 40, after receiving her shot at a maternity ward in eastern Freetown. She said she lost five family members to the disease in 2014. “If this vaccine had been available then, their lives could have been saved ,” she said.
The Ebola outbreak killed an estimated 4,000 people in Sierra Leone, including nearly 7% of health workers, between 2014 and 2016. The campaign, led by the Ministry of Health in partnership with the Gavi vaccine alliance, the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF, will take place in all 16 districts of the country.
“We are targeting at least 50 people a day in specific locations in Freetown ,” said Foday Ambrose Marrah, the health ministry’s operations manager in Freetown. Even though “the trauma of Ebola is still fresh in people’s minds ,” some people are hesitant to get vaccinated, he said.
Sierra Leone has not had a case of Ebola since 2016, but an outbreak in neighboring Guinea in 2021 prompted a localized vaccination campaign in border districts. Ebola is a rare but often fatal disease that can be transmitted through contact with infected animals or sick or dead people.
Symptoms include sudden fever, headache, muscle aches, vomiting and bleeding. The WHO estimates the average case fatality rate to be about 50%, but says the rate has been as high as 90% in previous outbreaks.
When Ebola struck Sierra Leone in 2014, there was no licensed vaccine against the disease. In 2019, WHO prequalified the Ervebo vaccine and Gavi officially approved a global stockpile of 500,000 doses. Sierra Leone’s 20,000 doses come from the Gavi-funded stockpile.
Sierra Leone launches nationwide Ebola vaccination campaign
December 5, 2024
AFP
Sierra Leone on Thursday began vaccinating thousands of health workers against Ebola, 10 years after it was hit hard by the disease. Along with Guinea and Liberia, it was one of the countries worst hit by the largest Ebola outbreak a decade ago.
Sierra Leone is the first of the three countries to launch a nationwide vaccination campaign, targeting the 20,000 people most at risk: first responders, traditional healers, religious leaders and security forces. They will receive a single dose of the Ervebo vaccine. The process began slowly on Thursday at health centres and police stations in the capital, Freetown, an AFP correspondent saw.
“The Ebola vaccine is a very good thing for us health workers ,” said Josephine Abdulai, 40, after receiving her shot at a maternity ward in eastern Freetown. She said she lost five family members to the disease in 2014. “If this vaccine had been available then, their lives could have been saved ,” she said.
The Ebola outbreak killed an estimated 4,000 people in Sierra Leone, including nearly 7% of health workers, between 2014 and 2016. The campaign, led by the Ministry of Health in partnership with the Gavi vaccine alliance, the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF, will take place in all 16 districts of the country.
“We are targeting at least 50 people a day in specific locations in Freetown ,” said Foday Ambrose Marrah, the health ministry’s operations manager in Freetown. Even though “the trauma of Ebola is still fresh in people’s minds ,” some people are hesitant to get vaccinated, he said.
Sierra Leone has not had a case of Ebola since 2016, but an outbreak in neighboring Guinea in 2021 prompted a localized vaccination campaign in border districts. Ebola is a rare but often fatal disease that can be transmitted through contact with infected animals or sick or dead people.
Symptoms include sudden fever, headache, muscle aches, vomiting and bleeding. The WHO estimates the average case fatality rate to be about 50%, but says the rate has been as high as 90% in previous outbreaks.
When Ebola struck Sierra Leone in 2014, there was no licensed vaccine against the disease. In 2019, WHO prequalified the Ervebo vaccine and Gavi officially approved a global stockpile of 500,000 doses. Sierra Leone’s 20,000 doses come from the Gavi-funded stockpile.