Liberia News

Monrovia 23rd April - The Ministry of Health Liberia embraced the move to switch from the use of trivalent oral polio vaccine (tOPV) to bivalent oral poliovirus vaccine bOPV in its routine immunization schedule. This initiative to withdraw type 2 component of tOPV is part of the global polio eradication endgame strategy for 2013-2018.

All of Liberia’s 15 counties successfully implemented the national SWITCH day on April, 22nd, 2016. This historical milestone comes three days before the regional launch of the African Vaccination Week in Ganta, Nimba County on 25th April.

Monrovia, 25 February 2016 - Almost 8,500 Liberian health workers have been trained in delivering safe, quality care as part of a Ministry of Health program aimed at rebuilding trust in a health system that was devastated by the Ebola outbreak.

Monrovia, 10 October 2015: At a sub-regional surveillance meeting, held on 5-6 October 2015 in Monrovia, health experts from Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone discussed a regional surveillance strategy for Phase 3 of the Ebola response. This entails transitioning from a strategy exclusive to Ebola to one designed to detect Ebola as one of a range of notifiable diseases under the Infectious Diseases Surveillance and Response (IDSR) system.

Monrovia, 28th July, 2015:- The Disease Prevention and Control (DPC) Division of the Ministry of Health of Liberia convened a 3-day stakeholders’ meeting to share, harmonize and map partners’ planned support for epidemic preparedness, disease surveillance and response - one of the key areas of the strategic health investment plan for building a resilient health system and strengthening health security for the Liberian people.

WHO and Ministry of Health teams in Guinea and Liberia have established epidemiological links between new Ebola cases in Liberia and a current flare-up of Ebola in neighbouring Guinea following intensified case investigations and contact tracing.

Monrovia, Liberia, 15th February 2016 - Liberia continues to register progress in her efforts to respond to the health status of the Liberian population through building a resilient health system. A robust Health Emergency Risk Management System has been developed through building public health capacity for prevention, preparedness, alert and response for disease outbreaks and other threats.

30th September 2015, Monrovia - The Liberian Ministry of Health is working to strengthen the supply chain management system, a key strategic area of theInvestment Plan for Building a Resilient Health System (2015- 2021). This is to ensure accessibility and availability of drugs and medical supplies at all levels to reduce wastage. To build the county health teams supply chain management system, 15 County Pharmacists and 17 Supply Chain Coordinators have been recruited and deployed by the Ministry of Health.

The World Health Organization convened 75 mental health experts to discuss the social and mental health impacts of the Ebola epidemic in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone and ways to strengthen response plans in the event of a future Ebola outbreak.

Update from the field
4 April 2016

WHO and Ministry of Health teams in Liberia and Guinea are investigating the origins of transmission in Liberia’s latest flare-up after learning that a woman who died from Ebola in Liberia last week had recently travelled from Guinea with her three young children.

Monrovia, 28 January 2016 - During a high-level meeting held on 18-20 January, the Ministry of Health of Liberia moved a step forward with plans for the establishment of a national public health institute (PHI). This is one of the priority components of the Liberia plan for building a resilient health system 2015-2021.