Healthcare in Sierra Leone

Healthcare in Sierra Leone is provided by a mixture of governmental, private and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). The Sierra Leone government has divided the country into 13 health districts based on the administrative districts of Sierra Leone. There is a lack of healthcare facilities in the country as a result of the Sierra Leone Civil War but have been gradually reconstructed since the end of the war.

Organization

All medical care is generally charged for in Sierra Leone [cite web | title = Sierra Leone | publisher = The Kambia Appeal
url = http://www.kambia.org.uk/information_about/sierra_leone.htm | accessdate = 2008-01-24] and is provided by a mixture of government, private and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). There are over 100 NGOs operating in the health care sector in Sierra Leone. The Ministry of Health and Sanitation is responsible for organising health care and after the end of the civil war the ministry changed to a decentralised structure of health provision to try and increase its coverage. The country is divided into 13 health districts that correspond to the districts of Sierra Leone except for the Western Area Rural and Western Area Urban districts which are combined into the Western Area Health district. Each district has a health management team and an average of 50 peripheral health units (PHU) and over 100 technical staff. The management team is responsible for planning, organising and monitoring health provision, training personnel, working with communities and supplying equipment and drugs.cite web | title = The Primary Health Care Hand Book Policing | publisher = Ministry of Health & Sanitation | date = 2007-05-25 | url = http://www.health.sl/drwebsite/publish/healthcare.shtml | format = doc | access date = 2008-01-24]

The PHUs are designed to be the delivery point for primary health care in the country and there are three main types. The community health centre carries out health prevention measures, cures and health promotion activities and is in charge of overseeing the other PHUs in the area. It is planned that each chiefdom, the unit of local government in Sierra Leone below the level of district, should have at least one community health centre. Community health posts perform a similar function to community health centres but have fewer facilities and are used to refer patients to the health centre or the district hospital. Maternal and Child Health posts are the first level of contact on the ground and are located in smaller towns of with populations between 500-2000. Much of the health care infrastructure was decimated during the Civil War and the health service is still in the process of being organised with hospitals and PHU being rebuilt or created and staff being trained.

Public health

Public health in Sierra Leone is generally poor and in 2007 the country had the highest level of child mortality in the world. [cite news | last = Walsh | first = Fergus | title = Survival is tough in Sierra Leone | publisher = BBC | date = 2008-01-22 | url = http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7202278.stm | accessdate = 2008-01-24 ] Other indicators of health are also poor with the infant mortality rate of 165 deaths per 1000 live births and a life expectancy of 41 years. The situation in relation to public health has been improving since the end of the civil war in 2002. For example child mortality has decreased from 302 deaths 1000 per live birth in 1990 to 282 deaths per 1000 live births in 2005.cite web | title = At a glance: Sierra Leone | publisher = UNICEF | url = http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/sierraleone_statistics.html#25 | accessdate = 2008-01-24]

The country suffers from epidemic outbreaks of diseases including yellow fever, cholera, lassa fever and meningitis. The prevalence of HIV/AIDS in the population is 1.6 percent, higher than the world average of 1 percent but lower than the average of 6.1 percent in Sub-Saharan Africa. [cite web | title = 2006 Report on the global AIDS epidemic | publisher = UNAIDS | date = 2006 | url = http://www.unaids.org/en/KnowledgeCentre/HIVData/GlobalReport/Default.asp
format = pdf | accessdate = 2008-01-24]

Traditional medicine

Traditional medicine forms part of the primary health care system in Sierra Leone. The traditional medicine programme, run by the Ministry of Health and Sanitation, has constructed a training school at Makeni, a healing centre at Kono and conducted workshops to promote co-operation between traditional medicine practitioners and orthodox doctors. Members of the programme have also located and collected plants from throughout Sierra Leone used for medicine. [cite web | title = Mission, Objective, Achievements and Aims of the Traditional Medicine Programme | publisher = Ministry of Health & Sanitation | date = 2006-08-11 | url = http://www.health.sl/drwebsite/publish/page_69.shtml | accessdate = 2008-01-24]

References

ee also

* Connaught Hospital
* Princess Christian Maternity Hospital

External links

* [http://www.health.sl/drwebsite/publish/index.shtml Ministry of Health and Sanitation]