Sierra Leone Launches Ebola Vaccine Campaign After 10 Years

Sierra Leonean authorities began a statewide distribution of the single-dose Ebola vaccine on Thursday, marking the first such campaign in West Africa since a catastrophic outbreak killed hundreds ten years ago.

The 2014 Ebola outbreak, the deadliest in history, was mostly in West Africa, although Sierra Leone suffered the most, with about 4,000 deaths out of over 11,000 recorded worldwide. The pandemic also caused a 7% reduction in the country’s healthcare staff.

Cynthia Reffell, a health worker in the country, stated that those who are most vulnerable to the disease will benefit the most from the vaccine campaign.

“We are targeting healthcare workers and front-line workers like the police, military officers and traditional healers,” according to her.

We are dealing with the Ebola vaccination on a preventive basis because if one person is infected, everyone others will be affected.

The national immunization campaign, launched by the government in collaboration with the global vaccine alliance Gavi, the World Health Organization, and the United Nations Children’s Agency, will target 20,000 frontline workers across the country, according to officials.

To ensure the campaign’s success, authorities and health officials have urged traditional healers to rally communities behind it.

“As they have informed us about the vaccine, it is our responsibility as stakeholders, as well as traditional healers, to encourage the communities and traditional healers, to take the vaccines which are not harmful” , Darlington Coker, a conventional healer, stated.

There was no licensed vaccine at the time of the 2014 outbreak, which began in Guinea and expanded across land borders to Sierra Leone and Liberia, the two worst afflicted nations.

The last case in Guinea was recorded three years ago, but officials have warned that there are still hazards in endemic places.