UNICEF Congratulates Guinea on Ending Ebola Virus Transmission

19 June 2021
Ebola Awareness Campaign
UNICEF DRC

CONAKRY/DAKAR, 19 June 2021 – Guinea was officially declared Ebola-Free today, having passed the mandatory period with no new confirmed or probable cases. Forty-two days have indeed passed since the last person in Guinea confirmed to have Ebola virus disease tested negative for the second time, and the country now enters 90 days of heightened surveillance to ensure that any new cases are identified quickly before they can spread to others.

This is an impressive milestone”, said UNICEF Regional Director for West and Central Africa Marie-Pierre Poirier. “I commend the government for their leadership, and communities and partners for their strong engagement in confronting the epidemic. As UNICEF, we are proud to have been part of the intensive, collaborative effort to help bring the Ebola outbreak to an end in Guinea”.

On February 14, 2021 the Guinean government declared an outbreak of Ebola disease in the N'Zérékoré region in South-East Guinea, near the Liberia and Côte d'Ivoire borders. Through its field office located in in the affected N'zérékoré region, UNICEF worked in coordination with the Regional Directorate of Health, the National Health Security Agency, WHO and other partners to develop and rollout the emergency Ebola response plan, especially in the areas of risk communication and community engagement, infection prevention and control; water, sanitation and hygiene; integrated outbreak analysis of epidemiological and social information to improve case surveillance and alerts detection;  pediatric care and psychosocial support; support to vaccination;  and supplies and logistics.

As part of the Ebola response, UNICEF and its partners worked with the Government of Guinea to help ensure that survivors had access to medical and psychosocial care, screening for persistent virus, as well as counselling and education to help them reintegrate into family and community life, reduce stigma and minimize the risk of Ebola virus transmission.

UNICEF worked closely with local health authorities to ensure continuity of essential health services and support community mobilization against Ebola through various measures to prevent contamination and further infections. Psychosocial and nutritional support was given to all those infected and affected, including children.

UNICEF worked alongside national and regional sectoral commissions to support coordination and promote synergies between interventions, more specifically, UNICEF and its partners have:

  • Had community-level dialogues with more than 41.564 people (including 15.575 women and 11.989 children) to provide information and answer questions on preventive measures against the Ebola virus disease;
  • Trained 446 humanitarian actors on the prevention of sexual exploitation and abuse (PSEA), the survivor-centered approach for the management of GBV, and community-based complaint mechanisms;
  • Distributed more than 4,000 hygiene kits, and constructed and rehabilitated more than 60 boreholes benefiting more than 18,000 people;
  • Trained 36 health workers on the continuity of services in the context of Ebola outbreak;
  • Provided psychosocial support to 357 children (including 155 girls) in the families of contact cases identified by social workers;
  • Supported the disinfection of 150 priority schools (59% of schools in affected communes) in the region of N'Zérékoré, in order to reduce the risk of transmission of the Ebola virus disease in schools;
  • Trained 1481 teachers (including 563 women), representing 58% of teachers in the affected communes, on how to support children during the Ebola outbreak;
  • Trained 70 members of women's groups and 70 community relays on Essential Family Practices (EFPs) and on Young Child Feeding (YCF) practices in emergency contexts;
  • Supported the establishment of a management mechanism to address community reluctance to Ebola treatment and hesitancy to vaccination.

An Ebola epidemic hit West Africa between 2013 and 2016, officially causing more than 11,300 deaths in three countries (Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone), including more than 2,500 in Guinea.

Media contacts

Sandra Bisin
West and Central Africa Regional Chief of Communication
UNICEF
Tel: +221 77 819 23 00
Fatou Tandiang
Communication Chief
UNICEF Guinea
Tel: +224 621 08 88 27

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