Ten years after the outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus in West Africa, the Sierra Leone government has commenced a nationwide supply of the single-dose Ebola vaccine, the first of such campaign in the region.
The 2014 Ebola outbreak – the deadliest in history – was primarily in West Africa but affected Sierra Leone the most, with nearly 4,000 deaths out of the more than 11,000 recorded globally.
A health worker in the country, Cynthia Reffell, said that the people who are most exposed to the disease will be the first to benefit from the vaccination campaign.
She said healthcare and front-line workers like the police, military officers and traditional healers are also being targeted for the vaccination exercise.
According to authorities in the country, the nationwide vaccine campaign, implemented by the government in partnership 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, officials said.