Summary: Study of Effectiveness of Community-Based EVD Prevention & Management in Bo District, Sierra Leone

The unprecedented Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) outbreak in West Africa was first reported in Sierra Leone in March 2014 and rapidly spread as the response to the crisis failed, revealing the faults of the region’s chronically-fractured and under-resourced healthcare system. However, a review of district level EVD records indicated that no Ebola-related deaths were documented among the 59,000 World Vision-supported sponsored children and their family members.

World Vision, Inc. commissioned Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health to determine the effectiveness of specific strategies employed by World Vision in order to increase the evidence of what works in responding to similar disease outbreaks. The study also explored differences between households containing children sponsored by World Vision that had a documented case of Ebola and households without a case of Ebola.