Response to the Ebola epidemic in Guinea
During the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, I was deployed by the WHO Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN) to Boffa province in Guinea. I was helping the local team with surveillance of suspect Ebola cases, and contact tracing after each confirmed Ebola case.
During the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, I was deployed for six weeks to Boffa province in Guinea. At the time, there were many experts from European countries and the United States, who helped the Guinean teams in better managing the response. The biggest challenges were underdeveloped healthcare, lack of local public health experts and reluctance of local communities, sometimes turning to aggressive attacks towards the response teams. I was helping the local team with surveillance of suspect Ebola cases, and contact tracing after each confirmed Ebola case. In Boffa there was particularly strong resistence towards authorities, which was mostly related to poor communication in the first phases of the epidemic. One time, we had to escape from a village when we went to investigate a suspect case.
Why does it matter?
Although the Ebola epidemic did not spread outside of three countries (Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone), it could easily get out of control, spread to neughbouring countries and beyond. Because of increasing globalization, an uncontrolled problem in one region of the world can lead to a global crisis. This is why the WHO GOARN plays such an important role in mobilizing resources and experts to provide help where it is needed.
