Almost two years since the first case of the worst Ebola outbreak in the world was reported, Sierra Leone has now been declared free of the disease.
Ebola is spread by human-to-human contact through broken skin by directly touching the bodily fluids of an infected person or by coming into contact with surfaces and materials (e.g. bedding, clothing) contaminated with these fluids.
In the wake of the Ebola outbreak many families and villages where decimated, while the health system, the economy, and social structures where all exposed for their poor standards.
Among the three countries most affected in sub-Saharan Africa, Sierra Leone alone saw the number of infected people rise to 8,704 and the eventual death toll was 3,590.
Around 4,000 people survived, but more than 10,000 children were orphaned as a result of the outbreak – the average age of orphans was four.
Artefact visited Sierra Leone to find out how people in one of the most vulnerable groups of society, the sex workers, were able to protect themselves during the epidemic.
You can see the first part of Fatima Jabbe’s report on the sex trade is Sierra Leone here.
Featured Image by Klemens Ochel via Flickr CC