Intense surveillance in Kambia, Sierra Leone, has revealed around 75% of deaths have been occurring in children under 5. Even though Ebola transmission was halted in Kambia last month, mothers still are afraid of Ebola and don’t take their young children to health centres. WHO epidemiologists are countering misperceptions to get mothers and their children back to the health centres and lower childhood mortality rates.

In Kambia, northwestern Sierra Leone, Ebola transmission was halted last month. However, to be certain that no new case is being missed, WHO epidemiologists are scrutinizing reports of every death in the district.

This intense surveillance has yielded disturbing news of a different kind. Around 75% of deaths in recent months have occurred in children under 5 years of age. Most of these children died at home, never seeing a health worker or receiving treatment, succumbing not to Ebola but to the many other diseases that still end young lives in this region.

To understand why and then to find ways to encourage mothers to bring their children back to the health centres, teams of WHO epidemiologists and community engagement specialists have been speaking with small focus groups of mothers with children under 5 in chiefdoms where the child death rates are very high.

"In this district Kambia, children are dying now. We, WHO, we are not happy about that at all. This is why we have come here today. We want to know why," Aziza Sahid, a community engagement specialist, told a group of mothers in Bubuye village. Babies at their breasts, toddlers on their laps, the mothers listened with rapt attention.

“Feel free to say whatever you know,” Aziza encouraged the group.

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