Many Hospitals in Guinea Closing Because of Ebola Virus

Conakry General Hospital via Koaci used with permission.

Conakry General Hospital via Koaci used with permission.

Guinea medical personnel are fearful following the death of 28 of their number and the hospitalization of 50 additional staff since September 17. Compounding this situation, the lack of protective equipment is so serious that medical gloves are being sold on the black market. Highlighting the atmosphere among care personnel, Amadou Tham Camara wrote the following on Guinea News:

Déjà traumatisé par la mort de six collègues au mois d’avril dernier, le  personnel soignant de l’hôpital sino guinéen de Kipé est dorénavant dans une sinécure paranoïaque : les médecins refusent de soigner. Et tous les jours, ils maudissent le17 mars, ce jour où ils ont reçu ce patient venu de Dabola qui a contaminé neuf de leurs collègues. 

Dans les autres grands hôpitaux nationaux de Conakry, des services entiers ne sont plus ouverts à cause des nouveaux cas d’Ebola détectés. Ainsi, depuis deux semaines, le service de réanimation de l’hôpital Ignace Deen est fermé. Le service gynécologique du même hôpital est barricadé  pour les mêmes raisons. De même la maternité de l’hôpital Donka, la plus grande du pays, ne fonctionne plus. 

Dans ce pandémonium, le paludisme qui reste le premier problème de santé publique en Guinée, avec plus de 30% des consultations, et la première cause de décès en milieu hospitalier(14%), selon l’OMS, a encore de beaux jours pour améliorer ses chiffres macabres. Tout ceci, à cause du silence feutré provoqué par le tintamarre assourdissant  autour d’Ebola.

Already traumatized by the death of six colleagues in April, care personnel of the Chinese-Guinean Friendship Hospital in Kipé are feeling paranoid, with doctors refusing to treat patients. They curse March 17 as being the day they received a patient from Dabola who infected nine of their colleagues.
Entire departments are closed in the other national hospitals of Conakry due to new cases of Ebola being detected. The intensive care unit of Ignace Deen has been closed for two weeks and the gynecology department of this hospital is currently barricaded. The Donka maternity hospital, the largest in the country, is no longer in service.

Malaria remains Guinea's major public health problem being responsible for over 30% of consultations and the primary cause of death in hospitals according to the WHO. All this pandemonium ensures these macabre statistics have had ample opportunity to worsen. A deadening silence caused by the deafening panic about Ebola.

Start the conversation

Authors, please log in »

Guidelines

  • All comments are reviewed by a moderator. Do not submit your comment more than once or it may be identified as spam.
  • Please treat others with respect. Comments containing hate speech, obscenity, and personal attacks will not be approved.