Dr Austin Demby

Dr Austin Demby, Minister of Health and Sanitation, Sierra Leone. A physician and public health specialist, he has held senior roles with the United States Health Resources and Services Administration, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, leading major HIV and epidemic response programmes, including the Ebola response, across Africa. As Minister, he has overseen a 20 percent reduction in Sierra Leone's maternal deaths and a rise in newborn survival to 87 percent, achieved alongside the transparent recruitment of 5,000 health workers and the introduction of solar power across the country's clinics. In 2024, a malaria vaccine rollout he championed reached 114,000 children across fifteen districts within its first year, and maternal deaths at Freetown’s Princess Christian Maternity Hospital, the country’s largest maternal referral centre, fell by more than 60 percent over the same two years. In March 2026, he launched the President-led 300 Days of Activism campaign toward zero preventable maternal deaths, zero preventable child deaths, and zero unvaccinated children.