By Politico Staff Writer
President Julius Maada Bio has at a High-Level Africa-CDC Forum shared Sierra Leone’s experience of the Ebola and COVID-19 outbreaks.
Speaking on 18 February 2023 at the programme in Addis Ababa, Bio said that one thing they’ve learnt is that pandemic prevention, preparedness and response is everyone’s concern. He emphasized that keys for managing outbreaks include political leadership, health diplomacy, technical capabilities, active community engagement, flexible funding amongst others.
The president stated that despite the great improvement the country has made over the years, the Ebola outbreak of 2014 to 2016 in West Africa remains fresh in the minds of the people, adding that Sierra Leone had over 14,000 infections and nearly 4,000 deaths.
He noted that the lessons learnt during the outbreak were displayed before and during the response to COVID-19 pandemic.
“Even before the first case was detected in my country, I assembled a Presidential-Taskforce that I chaired. I took full responsibility and accountability for the response. The Taskforce included representation of key line-Ministries of my government and civil society. We also maintained strong links with international development partners and the private sector” said the President.
Bio explained that the experiences from the two outbreaks have taught the government and the country that epidemics and pandemics are not only health issues, but that they can negatively affect all spheres of life.
He added that due to the tremendous negative effect such outbreaks can cause to the masses, the government is establishing an effective and efficient approach to service delivery by strengthening Primary Health Care, improving clinical services at the secondary and tertiary levels, among others.
President Bio mentioned the enactment of the Public Health Bill and stated that there will be a new Public Health Agency which he said will build and strengthen core competencies in areas such as surveillance and epidemiology, data and data analytics, laboratory science, and research to answer local and global questions.
He added that whilst the above is ongoing, handling routine health challenges and honing early warning systems during ‘Quiet’ periods will be done. “We will complement those efforts with simulations and exercises to maintain outbreak response competencies” said Bio.
The country in 2014 was seriously hit by the Ebola epidemic which took away many lives and economically destabilized the country. In 2020 also, the country got the shock of the corona virus disease which affected many parts of the world but this time the pandemic caused relatively low casualties.
Copyright © 2023 Politico Online (21/02/23)
