Health in Sierra Leone

Most deaths within the country are attributed to nutritional deficiencies, lack of access to clean water, pneumonia, diarrheal diseases, anemia, malaria, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS.

[3] When looking at the right to health with respect to children, Sierra Leone achieves 76.8% of what is expected based on its current income.

[4] In regard to the right to health amongst the adult population, the country achieves only 67.3% of what is expected based on the nation's level of income.

[7] In 2015, after improvements in health in other poorer countries life expectancy for both men and women was the lowest in the world.

[9] Common disabilities in Sierra Leone include blindness, deafness, war wounded, amputees and post-polio syndrome.

[10] The founding members of the Coalition were the Sierra Leone Red Cross Society, LFR International, the University of Makeni, Holy Spirit Hospital, and Agency for Rural Community Transformation.

[11] The Coalition began work in Makeni, training 1,000 community members to be first responders over a two-month period and equipping each with first aid skills and materials.

[14] Over two million outpatient visits are reported due to malaria annually, of which half are children under five years of age.

In Sierra Leone the number of midwives per 1,000 live births is 1 and the lifetime risk of death for pregnant women 1 in 21.

This left them traumatised, with an estimated 400,000 people (by 2009) being mentally ill.[20] Thousands of former child soldiers have fallen into substance abuse as they try to blunt their memories using cannabis and Kush, the newly developed synthetic drug.

[23][24] Sierra Leone suffers from epidemic outbreaks of diseases including cholera, Lassa fever, and meningitis.