HIGHLIGHTS
As of 2 September 2015, Liberia has gone 42 days without a new Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) case and is now transmission-free. There are no remaining contacts under follow up.
As part of its overall support to the restoration of regular health services, UNICEF is working with the Ministry of Health (MoH) on last mile distribution of essential medicines and supplies to 657 health facilities in 15 counties, thereby addressing issues of non-availability/stock outs.
UNICEF is supporting the MoH to establish a community health worker scheme in Liberia, which is a key component of the early recovery efforts in the country. To this end, the revision of the national policy, mapping of general community health volunteers (gCHVs) across the country and baseline assessments are underway.
UNICEF in Liberia met with CDC to discuss and agree on UNICEF’s technical input and assistance to a Harvard Opinion Research program that should provide information on community perspectives on dimensions of vaccination efforts in Liberia. Some strategic recommendations were made to inform the goals, methodology and approach to the proposed research study. All parties agree that the exercise must help establish knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) baselines for several antigens for all counties.
In Liberia, to-date 111 Outpatient Therapeutic Program (OTP) sites have been established. As a result, there is now at least one OTP site per health district in 12 counties. UNICEF is supporting this effort.
The Ebola outbreak disrupted birth registrations in Liberia, leaving thousands of children without citizenship and in danger of being trafficked or illegally adopted. UNICEF is supporting the government to clear this backlog by providing the necessary resources for mobile teams to go from county to county to register these children and issue them birth certificates.
Ahead of the reopening of schools in the new calendar year scheduled for 7 September 2015, a teacher training on child-friendly pedagogy and psychosocial support is underway across the country.