‘Significant international efforts are needed, not only to stop and contain the Ebola epidemic, but also to limit its indirect effects on health service functioning’.

New report highlights the devastating impact of ebola on health services in Sierra Leone. Summary and report available below.

Ebola and Indirect Effects on Health Service
Function in Sierra Leone

December 19, 2014
Håkon Angell Bolkan, Donald Alpha Bash-Taqi, Mohammed Samai, Martin Gerdin, Johan von Schreeb

This December 2014 research report  illustrates the impact of ebola on the health care system in Sierra Leone.   Inpatient health services have been severely affected by the Ebola outbreak. The dramatic documented decline in facility inpatient admissions and major surgery is likely to be an underestimation. Re-establishing such care is urgent and must be a priority.

‘To put a number on Ebola’s indirect health service effects, our results indicate that an estimated 35,000 sick in Sierra Leone will be excluded from inpatient care from the onset of the epidemic in mid-May and until the end of the year if current low level of admissions remains. Significant international efforts are needed, not only to stop and contain the Ebola epidemic, but also to limit its indirect effects on health service functioning.

A pdf of the research report is available here:

Ebola and Indirect Effects on Health Service Function in Sierra Leone (1)