Policy Brief on Water and Safe Clinics in Sierra Leone
References
Ministry of Health & Sanitation, Reproductive and Family Planning Programme. (2012). Sierra Leone Maternal Death
Reviews: A National Call to Action. Freetown: MoHS
2
World Health Organization, UNICEF, UNFPA, The World Bank & the United Nations Population Division. (2014).
Trends in Maternal Mortality: 1990 – 2013. Estimates by WHO, UNICEF, UNFPA, The World Bank and the United
Nations Population Division. Geneva: WHO.
3
Government of Sierra Leone, Ministry of Health & Sanitation, Reproductive and Child Health Directorate. (2013),
Summary Report of July 2013: Facility Improvement Team (FIT) Assessment Exercise. Freetown: GoSR, MoHS,
RCHD.
4
Blencowe, H., Cousens, S., Mullany, L.C., Lee, A.C.C., Kerber, K., Wall, S., Darmstadt, G.L., & Lawn, J.E. (2011).
Clean birth and postnatal care practices to reduce neonatal deaths from sepsis and tetanus: a systematic review and
Delphi estimation of mortality effect. BMC Public Health, 11(Suppl 3): S11.
5
The Partnership for Maternal, Newborn and Child Health. (Undated). Opportunities for Africa’s Newborns Practical
data, policy and programmatic support for newborn care in Africa. Chapter 3. Geneva: PMNCH.
6 Cheng,
J.J., Schuster-Wallace, C.J., Watt, S., Newbold, B.K., & Mente, A. (2012). An ecological quantification of the
relationships between water, sanitation and infant, child, and maternal mortality. Environmental Health, 11(4).
7 Campbell,
A. (2014, January 21). Sierra Leone News: Half of Salone to access clean water by 2016. Awoko.
Retrieved from http://awoko.org/2014/01/28/sierra-leone-news-half-of-salone-to-access-clean-water-by-2016/
Notes on calculations
I “Reducing infection
through the provision of safe water and good hygiene practices could save at least 1 out of the
every 7 women who die daily in Sierra Leone from childbirth.” Figures calculated as follows:
7 (rounded from 6.58) women die per day in Sierra Leone is based on: 2,400 maternal deaths annually (WHO et al.
2014)/365 days per year= 6.58 deaths per day.
1.25 out of the 7 deaths per day is based on: 19% of all maternal deaths in Sierra Leone are caused by sepsis (MoHS,
RFPP 2012).
II “Is
it right that in 21st century Sierra Leone an estimated 460 women and 550 newborn babies lose their lives every year
to infections acquired at the time of birth or shortly after?” Figures calculated as follows:
460 (rounded from 456) women = 19% of all maternal deaths in 2012 were caused by sepsis (MOHS, RFPP 2012), ie.
2,400 maternal deaths annually (WHO et al. 2014)
550 (rounded from 546) newborns = [78% of neonatal mortality from tetanus can be reduced by clean practices in a
health facility and by clean PNC practices (Blencowe 2011)] * [7% of all neonatal of deaths are due to tetanus (Lawn
2005) * 10,000 neonatal deaths each year in Sierra Leone (UNICEF et al. 2013, Data for 2012.]
Additional references used in calculations
Lawn, J. E, Cousens, S., & Zupan, J. (2005). 4 million neonatal deaths: when? Where? Why? The Lancet, 365(9462),
891–900.
UNICEF, WHO, The World Bank, UNFPA (2013) Levels and Trends in Child Mortality Report 2013, Estimates
developed by the UN-Interagency Group for child mortality estimation. New York: United Nations Children’s Fund.
This document was published in May 2014.