DIRECTORATE OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION

PR Nº001/2015

ASEOWA Guinea- Over 80 Health Workers from DRC to Respond to EVD Outbreak

Friday 2^nd January, 2015 – Eighty-one health (81) workers from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have arrived in Guinea to fight against the Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) epidemic. The team comprises medical doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians, epidemiologists, humanitarian, psycho-social and communication professionals who will work directly in the Ebola Treatment Units (ETUs) and in the communities across Guinea to support efforts already underway to stop the epidemic. They will also train local health workers on how to prevent and contain the Ebola virus.

This workforce from DRC which arrived in Guinea on Friday 26^th December, 2014 has added to the forty three (43) health workers from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and twenty-two (22) other volunteers from other parts of Africa who are already working in the country. All these groups are serving under the framework of the African Union Support to Ebola Outbreak in West Africa (ASEOWA) - a continental response to end the EVD epidemic in Africa. 

The ASEOWA mission in Guinea which now counts almost one hundred and fifty (150) professionals took effect in early November 2014. According to the ASEOWA Head of Mission, Major General Julius Oketta, “The ASEOWA mission will deploy over one thousand (1,000) health workers to all three affected countries, namely; Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Five hundred (500) of them will be deployed in Guinea”.

According to the ASEOWA Deputy Head of Mission in Guinea, Dr Aguide Soumouk, “ASEOWA is set to handle an ETU in Coyah, together with other partners. Our staff will also be deployed to work in other ETUs and communities in the country”.

Since the occurrence of the EVD outbreak, a total of 2,743 cases have been registered in Guinea, with 1,750 deaths as at 1^st January 2015. Five ETUs, four laboratories and two transit centres are functional as of this date.