Community Led Ebola Management and Eradication (CLEME) in Moyamba District
Background The rapid spread of the Ebola Virus Disease(EVD) in Sierra Leone demonstrates that the crisis will continue until a change in the population’s behaviour will occur breaking the virus’ transmission cycle at community level. As much as the case management capacities will increase they will not be sufficient unless the international communities succeed in triggering the change in the communities’ behaviours.
Since the start of the outbreak in May 2014, the social mobilization (SM) response to the epidemic has involved mass public campaign that responded to the need of rapidly improving the knowledge of the population in Sierra Leone of the EVD (prevention, transmissions’ modalities, signs and symptoms, and the referral system). A “knowledge, attitude, practices” (KAP) survey conducted in August 2014 demonstrated that more than 90% of those interviewed were aware of Ebola, its signs and symptoms, and the way of transmission. However the KAP also revealed the poor change in practices by the population, which is essential to prevent the continued spread of the virus at community level.