Dr. Aminata Koroma

Dr. Aminata Koroma is an internist at Connaught Hospital, Freetown's national teaching hospital and Sierra Leone's principal referral facility. She is one of a small cohort of physicians with advanced internal medicine training working within Sierra Leone's severely resource-constrained public health system, and her presence at Connaught represents a significant contribution to the hospital's clinical capacity. With 13 years of practice at the hospital, she manages the medical wards where patients arrive with late-stage HIV, complicated malaria, advanced tuberculosis, and the non-communicable conditions — hypertension, heart failure, anaemia, and sickle cell disease — that together form the dominant clinical picture in urban Sierra Leone. She trained at COMAHS and has pursued specialist training through the West African College of Physicians pathway, reflecting her commitment to achieving formal specialist credentialling within the constraints of Sierra Leone's training environment. She is trilingual in English, Krio, and Temne, enabling her to communicate directly with patients from Freetown and the Northern Province, from which many of Connaught's patients originate. She mentors junior doctors and medical students rotating through the medical wards and is one of the few female specialist-trained physicians in Sierra Leone's public hospital system.

Dr. Koroma completed her MBBS at the College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences (COMAHS) at the University of Sierra Leone. She has pursued specialist training in internal medicine through the West African College of Physicians (WACP) pathway, completing the Part I examination and working towards full Fellowship through supervised clinical training at Connaught Hospital. She has attended WHO and CDC-supported clinical training programmes on HIV management and ART protocol updates in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as MSF and Partners in Health training workshops on Lassa fever clinical management and infection prevention protocols at Connaught.

Dr. Koroma manages patients admitted to Connaught Hospital's general medical wards with a diverse and complex disease burden. Her HIV management practice covers ART initiation, management of advanced immunosuppression and opportunistic infections including cryptococcal meningitis, Pneumocystis pneumonia, and disseminated TB. She manages TB with standard DOTS regimens and complex drug-resistant TB cases requiring referral coordination. She is trained in Lassa fever assessment and clinical management in the isolation unit context — a critical skill in Sierra Leone, which lies within the West African Lassa fever endemic zone. She manages complicated malaria including cerebral malaria, severe anaemia requiring transfusion, and sickle cell crises. Her non-communicable disease practice covers hypertension management, heart failure assessment with limited echocardiography access, and chronic kidney disease workup and monitoring. She performs lumbar puncture, pleural aspiration, ascitic tap, and bone marrow aspiration.

Dr. Koroma has contributed to Ministry of Health-coordinated HIV treatment outcome data collection at Connaught Hospital and has participated in CDC-supported evaluation of ART programme performance in Sierra Leone. She has contributed to Connaught Hospital's institutional documentation of Lassa fever clinical cases, which has been incorporated into Sierra Leone's national Lassa fever epidemiological surveillance records. Her involvement in the WACP training programme has contributed to case-based learning materials used in the college's West African medical education network.

Connaught Hospital is the primary facility for international NGO workers, UN staff, and diplomatic community members based in Freetown who require acute medical care. Dr. Koroma is accessible to English-speaking international patients who require internal medicine assessment, including evaluation of febrile illness in a setting where Lassa fever must be considered alongside more common tropical infections. She can assist with the workup of patients who have been in Sierra Leone or the West African region and present with undifferentiated fever or systemic illness. For patients requiring care beyond Connaught's capacity, she assists with coordination of referral to more resource-rich facilities in Dakar or London.

Dr. Koroma has been recognised by the Sierra Leone Medical and Dental Association for her commitment to internal medicine training and patient care at Connaught Hospital. Partners in Health has acknowledged her clinical engagement and her willingness to participate in capacity-building activities supported by international organisations. As one of the very few female physicians with advanced internal medicine training in the Sierra Leonean public sector, she has been recognised by the Ministry of Health as a role model for women in medicine in Sierra Leone.