Sierra Leone Disease

Historically Ebola has had a serious impact on human health and hygiene and still does due to the fact of no vaccine or treatment being discovered, but thanks to improvements in scientific and medical knowledge the virus itself is now controllable.

In the United States, there are the privileges of incredible doctors, medicine, insurance, and many other resources that help the society stay healthy and prevent disease. Disease and sickness can be detrimental to a society. For example, something as simple as getting a flu shot saves lives around the world every year. In the Congo, vaccines are lucky to come by and are extremely valued. When people in a society are prone to disease, this affects how effective the society can be as a whole. Furthermore, this starts from the youth. The youth in the Congo are deprived of basic health requirements, causing the Congo to be an ineffective and war torn society.

A brief historical account of Sierra Leone may provide only a glimmer as to why the Sierra

In late 2013, Ebola virus disease (EVD), a deadly and lethal disease, remerged in West Africa spreading to various countries in the region. In humans, the disease is spread through contact with infected bodily fluids leading to haemorrhagic fever (World Health Organization [WHO], 2015). Originating in 1976 in equatorial Africa, past outbreaks with a few hundred cases had been contained within rural, forested areas in Uganda and Congo (Piot, 2012). In 2014, a total of 20, 206 cases and 7,905 deaths were reported to have occurred in up to eight countries worldwide. Of all cases and deaths resulting from the disease, 99.8% occurred in three neighbouring West African countries - Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea (WHO, 2014). With a case fatality rate from about 50% to 90%, and the absence of preventative or curative therapies, the Ebola epidemic has led to overall global alarm and further elucidated existing global health disparities that perpetuated the epidemic with these West African countries.

Poverty is the biggest problem of all in Africa. In addition, it is limiting the blood supply in Africa. Next, because of low blood supply they are not able to help people with the AIDS disease.

Sierra Leone is mainly a mining country, this caused it to be colonized and for their own native people being used as slaves in their mines. This shaped its social development by making it a far higher concentration of natives than other countries. But, because of their enslavement and American control until recently, literacy rates and per capita GDP are disturbingly low. Politically, though, it’s more stable than most countries in this case.

The whole world is at edge knowing that Ebola is a very lethal virus and it is very tough to treat and cure an infected person. But it has been seen that in countries were level of development is higher and health care is easily reached this disease can be fought.

In 2014 the world watched in horror as West Africa experienced the largest Ebola epidemic in history. Affected countries in Africa included Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone and the epidemic, having begun in December 2013, went on for a full year, with additional cases occurring throughout 2015. Over 19,000 cases were reported by December 2014 and of those, 7,518 lost their lives. Today, we know that in total, over 11,000 people lost their lives ("Previous case counts", 2016). There were many factors at play in this outbreak, such as the emergence of a new strain Ebola virus; a lack of preparedness in West Africa, where Ebola had not been seen prior to 2014; a shortage of health care workers and subsequent death of many more them, leading

Sierra Leone is a small country found on the west coast of Africa. The country shares a border with the Atlantic Ocean, Liberia, and Guinea. Sierra Leone has a population of 5,525,000 people, and 27,699 square miles of land. In 1462 Freetown, Sierra Leone was founded by Pedro da Cintra, a Portuguese explorer from Lagos, Portugal. da Cintra originally named the country Sierra Lyoa , the Lion Mountains, but in 1787 the British officially adopted Sierra Lyoa changing its name to its modern day spelling- Sierra Leone. This small country has faced many horrors within its history. The Sierra Leone civil war is a major contributing factor to the country’s current state of poverty and corruption. Most problems that the country faces today all stem

Sierra Leone endured a three-day lockdown. The lockdown forced the people to stay in their homes, and permitted them from moving about the country. During this time, Houses were searched and 130 new cases of Ebola were found. The Ebola virus can have a mortality rate up to 90%, which is greatly affecting Sierra Leones population of 6.1 million people.

The government continued to be extremely corrupt, there were still ethnic tensions, and Liberia, the neighboring country, was in its own civil war spreading violence into Sierra Leone. Along with that the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) was formed. This group overran the diamond mines of Sierra Leone and caused enough trouble for the military to have to get involved launching Sierra Leone’s civil war on March 23, 1991. For further reading into causes of the civil war in Sierra Leone click this link. The civil war lasted much longer for one reason being the vast amounts of diamonds. To the right you can see an image of the illegal diamond mining in Sierra Leone. The RUF funded their rebellious cause selling the diamonds, and since they are sold to fund war they are known as blood diamonds. In order to end the civil war Britain once again had to step into Sierra Leone and send its own military to stop the brutal civil war finally ending the 11 year war on January 18, 2002. (Sierra Leone, Royal African Society). If you would like to view more on Sierra Leone’s civil war the following links are to videos documenting the events of the war: link (long video est.1 hr 30 min), link (short video est. 14

Most recently stricken by the international virus Ebola and still recovering from a life-altering civil dispute, Sierra Leone is situated in Western Africa, bordering the North Atlantic Ocean. With a tropical, diverse climate Sierra Leone has an area of 71 740 km2 and an estimated population of 6 million residents . The largest of the population is located in the economic hub, political center and largest city of the country, Freetown. Sierra Leone is commonly divided into four major geographical regions: The Northern Province, Eastern Province, Southern Province, and the Western Area . The diversity of ethnicity can be centralized to the

Sierra Leone is a small country on the west coast of Africa, whose level of development has been greatly impacted on by internal and external factors. Sierra Leone has a very low level of development with a HDI of 0.374 giving it a rank of 183/187. They currently have a population of 6 million people and a GDP of $2 100. The adult literacy rates vary from male to female, at 58.7% to 37.7% respectively. A recent civil war lasting from 1991-2001, stemming from a colonial history with the occupation by the British has left the country in tatters. Just last year the Ebola epidemic broke out in West Africa and devastated the country. Sierra Leone's low level of development has been made worse by these events and has stunted it's ability to grow.

Prevention of the Ebola virus is more useful than the treatments. Improving sanitation is an important thing to do in rural African countries. Any victims need to be isolated as soon as possible. Quarantining of infected people from others plays a major role. People who have been in close contact with the infected

Following the end of a decade-long Civil War in 2002, the West African country of the Republic of Sierra Leone began a period of rebuilding, which has only been slowed by the recent Ebola epidemic. The total population of Sierra Leone hovers around 6,453,000, with about 1,004,000 of these children under five years old. The majority population is poor, with a GDP per capita at 1,600 USD, which ranks them in place 214 when compared globally. According to a 2004 estimate, 70.2% of the population is below the poverty line. Although Sierra Leone as country is fairly resource-rich, with resources including mining for diamonds and bauxite, “nearly half of the working-age population engages in subsistence agriculture. ” High rates of poverty can place a significant burden on the health of a country. In the following situation brief, topics including burden of disease, key determinants of health, and analysis of equity will be discussed in order to assess the state of health in Sierra Leone.