HIV and AIDS in Sierra Leone: A programmatic scenario

This review is a comprehensive description of the programmatic scenario in Sierra Leone’s fight against HIV/AIDS. It presents a situation analysis for HIV/AIDS infection including a range of prevention and treatment activities. The spread of the infection and disease would have damaging  consequences if not controlled. The country’s experience suggests that there are certain aspects of this development problem which require urgent and adequate attention. Among these are mainstreaming HIV/AIDS  education and developing well coordinated programmes to protect orphans and other vulnerable children. Stigma and discrimination, treatment and the country’s need to find sustainable resources for this complex, multi-faceted development problem which requires both short-term containment actions and long-term broad-based responses are elaborated on and extensively discussed hereunder.Key Words: HIV, Programmatic, Sierra Leon

Health Promotion as Part of a Holistic Approach to Community Mental Health Care in Sierra Leone

Mental health care in Sierra Leone is deplorable and its service delivery faces immense challenges. Improving mental health care facilities and services and encouraging health care professionals to enter this sector of service is probably plagued by the strong stigma that prevails in society. Reliable quantitative data on mental illness is extremely minimal. There is a dearth and paucity of information required for effective evalutation. Schizophrenia, hypomania and substance abuse seem to lead the charts in terms of diagnosed mental health disorders in Sierra Leone. An overall picture of the country’s mental health care and disease burden is presented herein. Health promotion is suggested as cardinal in a holistic approach to community health care as it represents a comprehensive social and political process; which embraces strategies and actions directed at strengthening the skills of individuals, changing social, environmental and economic conditions. This overview discusses extensively and recommends that there should be a comprehensive reviewKeywords: Health Promotion, Mental Health Care, Sierra Leon

HIV and AIDS in Sierra Leone: A programmatic scenario

This review is a comprehensive description of the programmatic scenario in Sierra Leone’s fight against HIV/AIDS. It presents a situation analysis for HIV/AIDS infection including a range of prevention and treatment activities. The spread of the infection and disease would have damaging  consequences if not controlled. The country’s experience suggests that there are certain aspects of this development problem which require urgent and adequate attention. Among these are mainstreaming HIV/AIDS  education and developing well coordinated programmes to protect orphans and other vulnerable children. Stigma and discrimination, treatment and the country’s need to find sustainable resources for this complex, multi-faceted development problem which requires both short-term containment actions and long-term broad-based responses are elaborated on and extensively discussed hereunder.Key Words: HIV, Programmatic, Sierra Leon