MALARIA PREVENTION AND CONTROL PROJECT IN SIERRA LEONE: MID-TERM EVALUATION REPORT IN MOYAMBA AND PORT LOKO DISTRICTS

Malaria remains the leading cause of morbidity and mortality, and therefore a major public health problem in Africa. Between 300 and 500 million episodes of malaria and 1.5 to 2.5 million deaths occur annually predominantly in children below 5 years and pregnant women. This can be attributed to a number of factors including inadequate preventive measures, the use of low efficacy drugs in treatment of malaria resulting to drug resistance, untidy environment that nurture and serves as breeding grounds for mosquito,etc. In Sierra Leone, malaria is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality, accounting for about 47% of outpatient morbidity, 37% admissions and case fatality ratio of 17% of inpatient deaths in children under five years of age. Over 24% of children under five had malaria in the two weeks preceding the latest household survey in 2008 (SLDHS, 2008 ). This mid-term evaluation is aimed at assessing the two and half year's achievements of the EC Malaria Project initiative in the Moyamba and Port Loko District respectively. The assessment indicators were derived from EC Malaria Control Project Logical Framework matrix.