Barriers and facilitators to reporting deaths following Ebola surveillance in Sierra Leone: implications for sustainable mortality surveillance based on an exploratory qualitative assessment.

Objectives: To understand the barriers contributing to the more than threefold decline in the number of deaths (of all causes) reported to a national toll free telephone line (1-1-7) after the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak ended in Sierra Leone and explore opportunities for improving routine death reporting as part of a nationwide mortality surveillance system.

Design: An exploratory qualitative assessment comprising 32 in-depth interviews (16 in Kenema district and 16 in Western Area). All interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed and analysed using qualitative content analysis to identify themes.

A qualitative study to understand how Ebola Virus Disease affected nutrition in Sierra Leone-A food value-chain framework for improving future response strategies.

Background: This study sought understand how the 2014-2016 EVD Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak impacted the nutrition sector in Sierra Leone and use findings for improving nutrition responses during future outbreaks of this magnitude.

Methodology: This qualitative study was iterative and emergent. In-depth interviews (n = 42) were conducted over two phases by purposively sampling both key informants (n = 21; government stakeholders, management staff from United Nations (UN) agencies and non-governmental organizations (NGO)), as well as community informants (n = 21; EVD survivors, health workers, community leaders) until data saturation.