Ebola in Guinea: in the city of Gouecké, residents feel stigmatized
Audio 01:24
The church of Gouecké in Guinea.
© Carol Valade / RFI
Text by: RFI Follow
4 min
The resurgence of the Ebola disease continues to claim victims: at least 6 deaths recorded out of fifteen cases.
Almost 5 years after the first occurrence of the virus, which killed more than 11,300 in West Africa, the disease reappeared in the region of Nzérékoré, in the south of the country.
The first case was detected in the small town of Gouecké, where the vaccination campaign is continuing but where residents today feel stigmatized.
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With our special correspondent in Gouecké,
Carol Valade
In Gouecké in front of the sub-prefecture, a small line is waiting to be vaccinated.
Gérard Delamou, president of civil society, maintains the list of volunteers.
“
Since the beginning, we can now count more than 120 people vaccinated.
And it continues.
Before, there was resistance.
Now, since people are well informed, people come voluntarily to be vaccinated.
"
The epidemic has turned the life of the locality upside down, whose inhabitants today feel stigmatized.
“
When a person moves, we ask him: 'where are you from', when she answers that she comes from Gouecké, there is a feeling of fear among people,
says Father Gabriel Lamah, vicar.
Morally, it touches, because the human being is a social being.
But from the moment Gouecké is on the front page, we are a little rejected.
"
And it is the health center where a staff member was the first detected case that suffers the most.
"
It is a center which, on average, could consult 30 to 35 patients
on
an ordinary day,"
reports doctor Aboudlaye Koli, chief medical officer.
On market days, up to 80-90 patients could be seen.
Since this disease was declared, attendance is one patient, maximum two patients per day.
And these are emergency cases.
"
The center, which operates on own funds only, has seen its revenues wiped out.
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Guinea
Ebola
Health and medicine