A major new survey to capture the state of the HIV epidemic in Sierra Leone is now officially underway. On March 18, 2026, Sierra Leone’s Ministry of Health, in collaboration with the National Public Health Agency (NPHA) and Statistics Sierra Leone, formally launched the Sierra Leone Population Based HIV Impact Assessment (SiLPHIA 2026) at an event in the nation’s capital, Freetown.
SiLPHIA 2026 will assess the prevalence of key HIV-related health indicators in the western part of the country to help guide the national HIV response and advance progress toward eventual HIV epidemic control.
The launch event was attended by the Honorable Minister of Health, Dr. Austin Demby, who delivered the keynote address; Dr. Monique Foster Sierra Leone country director for the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Tepa Nkumbula, SiLPHIA 2026 technical specialist; Dr. Sartie Kenneh, chief medical officer; and Ibrahim Sorie, senior permanent secretary of the Ministry of Health, who moderated the program.
In his keynote address, Dr. Demby described SiLPHIA 2026 as a turning point in Sierra Leone’s public health journey, one that will empower communities and accelerate progress toward ending HIV as a public health threat.
Dr. Foday Sahr, executive director of NPHA, who is serving as Sierra Leone’s principal investigator for SiLPHIA 2026, affirmed that this is the country’s first‑ever of the general population. For the first time, the country will know, based on real data from real households, exactly how many people in the Western Area are living with HIV, how many are on treatment, and how many have the virus fully under control. Emphasizing that the survey was designed and is being carried out by Sierra Leoneans, he noted data collection had already begun on March 12, with 18 field teams visiting households across 127 communities in Western Area Urban and Rural. As of the launch event, 215 households had been visited, 607 people interviewed, and 519 blood specimens collected for laboratory testing, he reported.
Honorable Minister of Health, Dr. Austin Demby and ICAP’s Eric Ikoona converse at the SiLPHIA Launch Event.
“SiLPHIA 2026 is a defining chapter in Sierra Leone’s fight against HIV. The teams are in the field, the science is strong, and our people are ready. Most importantly, our country Sierra Leone is ready,” Dr. Sahr concluded.
SiLPHIA 2026 is the latest effort in the global Population-based HIV Impact Assessment (PHIA) project, which, since 2014, has conducted nationally representative surveys to capture the state of the HIV epidemic in the world’s most-affected countries, assessing their progress toward achieving the critical UNAIDS 95-95-95 goals, which serve as a roadmap toward achieving HIV epidemic control. The PHIA project is led by the ministry of health in each participating country and funded by the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) through the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) with technical support from ICAP.
Sierra Leone represents the 17th country surveyed under the PHIA project, and SiLPHIA 2026 is the 26th survey ICAP has supported as part of this landmark initiative.
“ICAP has been proud to partner with the National Public Health Agency, the Ministry of Health, and the US CDC in every phase of this work — from protocol development and ethical approvals, to the renovation of laboratories at Lakka and ODCH, to training over 190 Sierra Leonean professionals — interviewers, nurses, laboratory scientists, and community mobilisers who are the backbone of this survey,” remarked Eric Ikoona, MD, PhD, director of SiLPHIA 2026 for ICAP in Sierra Leone, at the launch event. “ICAP remains fully committed to this partnership — through fieldwork, through analysis, and through the day we stand together again to present Sierra Leone with the most comprehensive HIV data it has ever produced.
Read more about the launch here.
