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ECHO's regional health expert reflects about his personal experience in fighting Ebola

Friday, 31 October 2014 13:03 GMT

Photo credit: EU/ECHO

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* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.

How is the Ebola epidemic evolving in Guinea?

The epidemic keeps spreading geographically. Currently most cases are to be found on the outskirts of Conakry and in big parts of the Forest region. One complicating factor is the difficult access for health teams because of people’s refusal, sometimes violently, to receive investigation teams. During a recent visit we observed the same pattern in different areas: a village gets infected, the community closes itself up and refuses health worker visits until the death toll becomes too high. In a reflex to preserve their lives, villagers then start fleeing and re-start small outbreaks elsewhere. A lot of efforts are ongoing, from the lowest to the highest level, to stop this transmission pattern.

What is the current outlook for containing the outbreak?

To control the epidemic in the next few months an important scaling up of activities is needed. There’s a positive change in this sense. But should we see a slowdown of the epidemic thanks to increased efforts, we cannot sit back. When I visited Guéckédou in July, I saw the last patient walking out of the treatment centre managed by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). There was a small celebration.

We had the impression the worst might be over. But a few weeks later, the whole picture had changed again.

Read the full interview here

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