Guinea News

More than 11 000 people in Guinea participated in a WHO-led trial to develop the world’s first vaccine against Ebola virus disease. The ground-breaking trial, which ended in January 2016, resulted in a vaccine that is highly protective against the deadly virus. The Director-General of WHO, Dr Margaret Chan and the WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr Matshidiso Moeti visited some of the communities who participated in the vaccine trial in the city of Conakry.

On 15 May, 2015, a meeting was held to reinvigorate the Health Cluster/Group in Guinea. In attendance were each of the UN agencies as well as international and national NGOs. With the onset of the Ebola epidemic in West Africa last year, the health cluster operations were paralyzed.

In a new initiative by WHO in partnership with UNICEF, CDC, Coordination Nationale de Lutte Contre Ebola, MSF and IFRC, 250 community surveillance workers are being trained to ramp up the Ebola response in its final stages. WHO and partners in Guinea recognize the need for increased vigilance as Ebola cases remain low and the end of the epidemic is in sight.

In the final stages of an epidemic, it is more important than ever for all teams to come together and work on eradicating the virus. It has been a long year for WHO Guinea and for the Guinean people, as Ebola devastated the nation claiming 2387 lives. But as the response progressed, the teams at WHO Country Office continued to find innovative ways to work together. This month the entire Communications and Social Mobilization team and all of WHO’s Social Anthropologists in Guinea, came together to plan a strategy for collaboration.

Conakry (Guinea), 17 August 2015 (WHO): The President of Guinea, Mr Alpha Condé, called a meeting with Dr Mohamed Belhocine, the WHO Country Representative in Guinea, the coordinator of the Ebola vaccine trial and the CDC/Atlanta coordinator in Guinea. This team of partners was introduced by the national Ebola virus disease coordinator Dr Sakoba Keita.