National Strategic Framework

A national policy on HIV and AIDS was drafted and adopted by parliament in March 2002.

Government has signed a US $15million agreement with the World Bank to support the four-year Sierra Leone HIV and AIDS Response Project (SHARP).

Ministry of Health
Minister: Agnes Taylor-Lewis
Fourth floor Youyi Building, Brookfields
Tel: +232 22 242 119 / +232 22 240 131
Fax: +232 22 241 283

National AIDS Secretariat
Dr Brima Kargbo, National AIDS Secretariat
Tel: +232 22 235 842/849 / +232 76 619 880
Email:

• Responsible for the implementation of the activities of SHARP.

HIV/AIDS Organisations:

1. Africa AIDS Education & Prevention - Sierra Leone Project
   Contact person: Dr. Sangoi Eric Lamboi,
   Email:
   Website: www.sierra-leoneaidsproject.org
   · HIV/AIDS education, testing, and treatment.
• American Refugee Committee (ARC)
  Contact person: Martha Saldinger
  Freetown 16 Riverside Drive, Off Kingharman Rd. Brookfields
  Tel: +232 22 221 445
  Fax: +232 22 221 453
  Email:
• GOAL IRELAND
  Contact person: Paul Mulcahy
  51 Liverpool Street
  Freetown
  Tel: +232 22 222 745
  Fax: +232 22 220 496
  Email:
  Website: www.goal.ie
  · HIV/AIDS awareness, prevention and support.
• Sierra Leone Red Cross
  Contact person: Arthur de-Winton Cummings
  6 Liverpool Street, Freetown
  Email:
  · Working on a US $ 6 million project for post conflict rehabilitation of health services to combat, AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
• UN Theme Group on HIV/AIDS
  Contact person: Aboubacry Tall
  P.O. Box 221 Freetown
  Tel: +232 22 226 825 / +232 22 223 865
  Fax: +232 22 242 109
  Email:

For consistency reasons the data used in the above table are taken from official UN publications

For consistency reasons the data used in the above table are taken from official UN publications

Source: WHO/UNAIDS epidemiological fact sheets on HIV/AIDS and Sexually Transmitted Infections, 2004 Update.
Email:

Assessment of the epidemiological situation (2004)

In 2002, a survey of HIV prevalence was carried out among the general population. HIV prevalence among adults aged 15-49 was 1.4 percent. The prevalence rate in Freetown was 2.3 percent.

What data are available regarding antenatal clinic attendees in Sierra Leone indicates a steadily worsening HIV epidemic. Nationally, less than one percent of pregnant women tested positive for the virus in 1989. By 1996, 7 percent were infected with the virus.

A 1995 sero-survey conducted among sex workers in Freetown found 27 percent tested positive for HIV-1. In an unspecified locale outside of major urban areas, 70 percent of sex workers were HIV positive in 1997.

Outside major urban areas, 9 percent of police officers were HIV positive in 1996. In 1997, 12 percent of security forces were infected.