By Mohamed Jaward Nyallay
A nationwide push by the Ministry of Health and frontline health workers has driven a sharp decline in maternal mortality, with deaths falling by 30% in the first 150 days of the 300 Days of Activism campaign.
Launched in March, the campaign is built around three ambitious targets: Zero Maternal Deaths, Zero Child Deaths, and Zero Zero-Dose Children. At its halfway point, the Ministry says progress has been recorded across all three indicators.
During the campaign period, maternal deaths have declined by 30%, child deaths by 14%, while 79% of children who had never received any form of vaccination have now been identified and immunized.
“What we have seen is the possibility of what we can achieve. This kind of trajectory has not been seen anywhere in the world,” Minister of Health Dr. Austin Demby said during an event marking the campaign’s midpoint.
Despite the gains, Dr. Demby stressed that the results should spur greater action rather than complacency, urging health workers and communities to sustain the momentum.
Dr. Francis Moses and Dr. Mariama Mustapha, who are leading the campaign, said reducing child mortality remains the major priority.
“It’s not dropping as fast as we want it,” Dr. Moses said.
He said one of the key measures introduced is a mandatory review of every child death at the hospital level within 24 hours of the incident, allowing health teams to identify causes quickly and strengthen responses.
Dr. Mustapha said the data shows Sierra Leone is beginning to bend the curve on maternal and child survival, but warned that the progress must be sustained.
“Ultimately, we want to institutionalize these interventions beyond this campaign,” she said.
Dr. Demby said the Ministry is now better equipped to tackle the leading causes of maternal and child deaths, including bleeding, sepsis, hypertension, malaria, pneumonia and diarrhea. He added that improved access to real-time, localized data is enabling more targeted interventions.
“We are now looking at granular data that informs our interventions. We can see what is happening in Bonthe or Tonkolili this week, examine community-level trends, and respond where the need is greatest,” he said.