Stemming from the 2014-6 Ebola virus disease (EVD) outbreak, community event based surveillance (CEBS) was implemented in Sierra Leone using community health workers to generate alerts for trigger events suggestive of EVD transmission. Through September 30, 2015 (last month of active EVD transmission), the majority (86%) of alerts reflected community deaths; this was beneficial as Ebolarelated deaths were detected with delay during the epidemic’s peak. The Government had implemented a policy of mandatory swabbing and testing of all dead bodies. The policy changed on June 30, 2016 wherein only swabbing of deaths deemed to be high-risk for EVD is required. To assess whether this policy change has begun to affect community death reporting, we analyzed trends in death reporting before and after the policy change.
Objective
To assess whether the change in death swabbing policy in Sierra Leon has begun to affect community death reporting, we analyzed trends in death reporting before and after the policy change