Partners In Health Sierra Leone Audio Updates!

Today, Jon Lascher speaks with Vicky Reed, Director of Nursing, and Isata Dumbuya, Maternal and Child Health lead. Both Vicky and Isata are celebrating International Nurses Day today with their teams in Kono, and they share what inspired them to become nurses. As Isata says in the episode, "Nurses rock".

Thank you to all of the incredible nurses caring for patients around the world!

Today, Jon Lascher travels to the main Covid-19 hospital in Sierra Leone: the 34 Military Hospital, and checks in with Dr. Marta Lado, PIH Sierra Leone's Chief Medical Officer, who has been seeing Covid-19 patients since the outbreak reached Sierra Leone 6 weeks ago. 

Today, Jon Lascher speaks with Vamba Lolleh, the Electronic Health Officer for PIH Sierra Leone. He talks about deploying electronic medical record systems at Wellbody Clinic, Koidu Government Hospital, and for Community Health Workers in Kono. He also updates us on what he and the team have been working on during the Covid-19 Outbreak.

Today, Jon Lascher speaks with head of laboratory services for PIH Sierra Leone, Musa Bangura. Musa shares some insights into the lab testing challenges in Sierra Leone, and what the future may hold for Covid-19 diagnostics in the country. 3 day nationwide lockdown begins on Sunday, May 3rd. Wishing everyone around the world a happy Labo(u)r Day.

Today, Jon Lascher speaks with Infrastructure Manager, and roommate, Douglas Miller to learn more about a new Covid-19 ward set to open next week in Freetown. We also speak about new priorities for the infrastructure team, and status updates on pre-Coronavirus projects. 

Today, Jon Lascher visits the final day of the training of trainers for Sierra leone's national contact tracing program. Jon is joined by epidemiologist Gbessay Saffa, the head of contact tracing for the Government of Sierra Leone to learn a bit more about contact tracing, his experience, and the partnership between PIH and the Ministry of Health's contact tracing response.

Today, Jon Lascher and repeat guest on the PIH SL Audio Update, Dr. Bailor Barrie talk about the upcoming trainings Sierra Leone's national contact tracing program. PIH is leading the training with the surveillance pillar and the emergency operations center. #contacttracingtraining. Say that three times fast.

Today, Jon Lascher is joined by Dr. Joia Mukherjee, Chief Medical Officer for Partners In Health to discuss the Massachusetts contact tracing program, and how the Ebola response in Sierra Leone is helping to guide PIH's United States Covid-19 response. #tonkolilitotewksbury. First Hashtag ever, and its a good one.

Read more about PIH's Massachusetts response here: https://www.pih.org/ma-response

Read more about PIH Sierra Leone's response here: https://www.pih.org/article/facing-covid-19-preparedness-key-sierra-leone

Today, Jon Lascher and Bailor Barrie discuss the latest Covid-19 situation in Sierra Leone - 35 cases, a new case in Tonkolili District, and efforts to train community health workers as contact tracers.

Today, Jon Lascher speaks with Dr. Chembe Kachimanga, a PIHer with more than 8 years of experience working in Malawi and Sierra Leone. Almost 2 years ago Chembe left Malawi to help build PIH SL's medical education program, and now he also leads our non-communicable disease work, our monitoring and evaluation program, as well as supports our community based program.