FAO, USAID and Partners strengthen readiness, preparedness, and response capacity to manage a Rift Valley Fever health emergency in Sierra Leone
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) in partnership with the World Health Organization, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Ministry of Health, Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change and United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Global Health Security Program (GHSP) organized a table-top Simulation exercise and developed a Contingency Plan for the prevention and control of Rift Valley Fever in Sierra Leone.
Rift Valley Fever (RVF) a highly contagious disease affecting animals (buffalo, camels, cattle goats, and sheep) and humans is one of the major public health threats in sub-Saharan Africa. Since the virus was discovered in Kenya in 1931, explosive outbreaks of severe disease in livestock and animals have occurred throughout Africa with potential to spread to Middle East, Asia, and Europe. Sierra Leone has never reported or confirmed an outbreak of RVF in animals or humans, but the disease is among the top ten Priority Zoonotic Diseases (PZDs) in the country. An outbreak of RVF in Sierra Leone will devastate the Livestock industry, livelihoods, food security and affect humans resulting in high socioeconomic and public health impacts.
In order to strengthen preparedness and response capacity for RVF in Sierra Leone, FAO with funding from United States Agency for International Development (USAID) under the Global Health Security (GHS) portfolio, provided technical and logistical support to conduct a table-top simulation exercise for RVF using a One Health approach. The simulation exercise tested the capacity and capability of the animal and public health systems to prevent, detect, respond, and recover to a potential outbreak of RVF in accordance with recommended regional and international guidelines for RVF Preparedness and response. In addition, the simulation exercise enabled participants to improve their awareness on RVF and to identify strengths, gaps and key priority areas that were captured to draft the Contingency Plan for the prevention and control of RVF in Sierra Leone.
The table-top simulation exercise and drafting of the Contingency Plan for the prevention and control of Rift Valley Fever in Sierra Leone was held from 18th -22nd June 2024 in Makeni Bombali and involved multiple sectors, agencies and disciplines representing animal health, public health, environment (including wildlife), the Office of National Security, academia, research, and partners.
Speaking at the workshop, the representative of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, Salamu Saidu, thanked FAO and USAID for supporting the country to conduct a tabletop simulation and to draft a contingency plan for prevention and control of Rift Valley in the country.
Sahr Simeon Gbandeh representing Ministry of Health remarked that Sierra Leone has experienced several zoonotic outbreaks in the past. The RVF simulation exercise, using a One Health Approach, is timely and provides an opportunity for the exchange of knowledge and the identification of gaps in developing an integrated Contingency Plan
WHO Representative Medlin Soko Tucker stressed the importance of conducting the simulation exercise, especially at this time when Rift Valley outbreaks have not been reported in country. “It is important that we test the capacity and capability of our public and animal health systems to prevent, detect and respond to a potential RVF outbreak” he said.
Bridget O. Kamara representing FAO expressed her gratitude to USAID for funding the Simulation Exercise, the development of various strategies and plans including the RVF Contingency Plan
Previous efforts by Government of Sierra Leone
The risk of potential introduction and spread of Rift Valley Fever in Sierra Leone has been anticipated, since 2017 when outbreaks affected many West African countries among which are contiguous to Sierra Leone. Sierra Leone was considered a high-risk country because of the rampant movement of livestock and people across the countries infected with RVF. In view of this, Sierra Leone developed a Surveillance Plan for Rift Valley Fever in 2013 but it is yet to be fully operationalised.