Sierra Leone commemorated World Malaria Day 2016 with the launched of four strategic national malaria control policy documents during an event that attracted partners, government officials and the general public.

The documents included:

1. Malaria Strategic Plan2015-2030
2. National Malaria Policy document 2015-2020
3. National Malaria Treatment Guidelines and
4. National Malaria Quality Control Management Plan 2016-2020.

The Day was commemorated on 25 April on the global theme “End Malaria for Good” to call attention to the need for countries to strive towards malaria elimination. The local slogan to mark the day was “Leh we Join Han for Tap Malaria” which emphasized collaboration in the prevention and control of the disease.

Malaria is a major disease burden in Sierra Leone. Every year hundreds of people suffer from the disease and results in high fatality particularly among children. According to the Demographic Health Survey (DHS2013) malaria accounted for 14% of all under-fives mortality in the country during that year. In 2014 out of a total of more than 3.5 million outpatients in the country, malaria was confirmed in over 1.3 million of them with over 2,484 deaths due to the disease. Meanwhile, in 2015, a total of 281 malaria cases per 1000 population were confirmed (NMCP DHIS 2015). WHO estimates 500 cases per 1000.  

To help countries accelerate progress towards malaria elimination, WHO developed a Global Technical Strategy for Malaria 2016–2030 that was adopted by the World Health Assembly in May 2015. The Strategy sets the targets of reducing global malaria incidence and mortality rates by at least 90% by 2030. http://goo.gl/Sv2DMS

Several interventions are being implemented in Sierra Leone to strengthen malaria prevention and control. Data from 2015 showed that coverage for long lasting insecticide treated nets in households was > 80%. While access to antimalarial treatment ACT increased from 36% in 2005 to 83.9 % in 2013 (DHS 2013).