S.Leone launches nationwide Ebola vaccination a decade after outbreak

Sierra Leone on Thursday started injecting the first of thousands of front line workers with a preventive Ebola vaccine, a decade after the disease ravaged parts of West Africa killing more than 11,000 people.

Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia were the worst-affected countries 10 years ago, in what was the largest Ebola outbreak since the virus was first discovered in 1976. Sierra Leone is the first of the three countries to launch a national Ebola vaccination campaign, which will target 20,000 front line workers.

The national roll out will take place across all of Sierra Leone's 16 districts, implemented by the health ministry in partnership with the Gavi vaccine alliance, the World Health Organisation and UNICEF, a joint statement said. The Ebola outbreak which lasted from 2014 to 2016 killed around 4,000 people in Sierra Leone, including nearly seven percent of the healthcare workforce.