Renowned Guinean doctor Ousmane Touré died in Haiti earthquake
Dr Ousmane Touré had been very active during the response against the Ebola virus in Guinea.
© KENZO TRIBOUILLARD / AFP
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4 min
A young Guinean doctor, Doctor Ousmane Touré, originally from Guinea, lost his life in a building collapse following the magnitude 7.2 earthquake that struck Haiti on August 14.
He was a specialist in public health emergencies and was on mission for the WHO.
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With our correspondent in Conakry,
Mouctar Bah
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus paid tribute to Dr Ousmane Touré on Wednesday August 18.
"
A brilliant epidemiologist, hard worker, devoted
" according to the director general of the WHO, who was married and father of two little girls.
I express my deep compassion following the earthquake that occurred in Haiti🇭🇹.
Among the many victims to whom I bow piously, is our compatriot🇬🇳 Dr Ousmane Touré of #WHO.
I extend my special condolences to his family.
Peace to their souls🙏 pic.twitter.com/7zF9eQHIPi
- Dr Mouctar DIALLO (@ MouctarD75) August 16, 2021
A graduate of Gamal Abdel Nasser University in Conakry (Uganc), he started working with WHO in Guinea, where he supported the polio eradication program from 2009 to 2013. From 2014 to 2016, he worked participated in the WHO response to Ebola, which was hitting Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia hard.
He was then deployed to Haiti as field coordinator for the cholera response at the service of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and WHO from 2017 to 2018.
Subsequently, in November 2018, he returned to Africa to work as a field epidemiologist in
the WHO
Ebola response team
in DRC.
On a mission in the face of Covid-19 in Haiti
Dr Touré arrived in Haiti in July 2020 to work for PAHO as an international consultant in health emergencies as part of the Covid-19 response.
Doctor Touré at the time of his disappearance was following an advanced master's degree in public health at the University of Geneva and a master's degree in international cooperation and humanitarian aid at the KALU Institute in Madrid.
He was 39 years old.
In Guinea, one of his friends and collaborator, Doctor Mohamed Sitan Keïta, who studied medicine with Doctor Ousmane Touré, also pays tribute to him:
Mohamed Sitan Keïta: Dr. Touré "was one of the first five doctors deployed" for the response against Ebola
Jeanne Richard
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Guinea
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Haiti
Earthquake in Haiti
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