GUINEA — The Ebola outbreak that took place in Guinea beginning during 2013 showed how unprepared and weak the country’s health care system was. Not only was the number of cases too much to handle for Guinea’s hospitals and clinics, but health care workers were an easy target for the disease. From 2014 to the beginning of 2016 there were at least 3,300 cases of Ebola in Guinea.

With each of Guinea’s hospitals and clinics failing to keep up with the number of Ebola cases, other essential services became unavailable during this time. In 2015 alone, Guinea saw nearly 679 mothers die alongside the death of 94 out of every 1,000 children.

Guinea was a quickly growing developing country before its rapid exposure to Ebola. Disease prevention was not a priority which meant that when Ebola began to emerge, Guinea had no way of detecting and responding to it. In the long run, a focus on disease prevention beforehand would have saved Guinea’s economy before Ebola crippled it. Preventing disease is much cheaper than caring for people when they get sick.

Due to these issues, Guinea, and eight other countries in West Africa looked for a better approach to disease control to prevent future epidemics. With the help of The World Bank Group, Guinea worked, “to improve surveillance and early reporting; strengthen laboratory capacity; bolster workforce training, deployment, and retention’ and enhance preparedness and rapid response.” The World Bank Group committed $1.62 billion to rebuild health care systems in multiple countries in West Africa.

The country also needed to address the mistrust that citizens had in Guinea’s hospitals and clinics. The outbreak of Ebola was not the sole cause of this. These ill feelings had been there before. The underfunding of health services caused the citizens of Guinea not to be too trusting of the government. The fear of contracting Ebola then came into effect which caused the birth rate to decrease drastically. Those who became infected did not believe any of Guinea’s hospitals could help them.

While planning the restructuring of clinics and hospitals, USAID wanted the two countries to ask their communities for their demands. “By engaging all in the early stages of the rehabilitation process, people are not only able to identify key problems and concerns but more likely to be part of the solution.” This dialogue was critical for kind of successful health care systems that Guinea needed.

With the assistance of USAID, Guinea’s Ministry of Health created the Gold Star accreditation system as a way for Guinea’s hospitals to be trusted and improve services. The new regime was advertised heavily throughout the country to make people aware of the process.

Since Guinea is a developing country, necessary supplies for clinics and hospitals that reside in first world countries are unavailable. USAID ensured that wings of the hospitals were renovated to produce better services. The state also invested in necessary medical tools for these renovated hospitals. Things like protective gloves and air conditioning make it much easier for Guinea’s citizens to trust that they are in good hands for every service.

From last year to this year, USAID has been able to renovate 16 healthcare facilities in Guinea. By the end of the year, the country hopes to do the same to 20 more. This change will not only give credit to Guinea’s hospitals and clinics as safe and reliable places but also prepare the country in case another epidemic such as Ebola strikes again.

– Mackenzie Fielder

Photo: Flickr