Guinea

In September, government security forces cracked down violently on a large opposition rally in the capital city of Guinea Conakry, leaving 150 people dead and hundreds injured. Political instability remained throughout 2009, and poverty and limited access to quality health services continued to affect the lives of most Guineans. MSF provided medical care, including treatment for HIV/AIDS and paediatric care.

 

Violence 
On September 28, hospitals in Conakry were overwhelmed by hundreds of people that had been wounded in the government repression of the opposition protest. MSF responded by providing local hospitals and health centres with medical material and assisting with the evacuation, triage and treatment of the wounded. Teams treated more than 400 wounded, a third of whom for serious injuries and set up a centre where victims of violence could seek medical and psychological care.

Paediatrics

In February, MSF started a new paediatric programme in collaboration with the Guinean health authorities in Matam, a district of Conakry. Offering care specifically to children under five and to pregnant and breast-feeding women, this project aims to reduce the mortality rate of young children in the district, many of whom are affected by malaria, malnutrition, diarrhoea and other diseases. More than 5,500 consultations, half of which for malaria, were carried out in Matam’s three health centres in 2009. MSF also provides neonatal and nutritional care at Conakry’s National Institute for Children’s Health.

 

HIV/AIDS care and decentralisation
In 2009, MSF continued to run HIV/AIDS treatment programmes in the city Guéckédou in the southeast of the country and in the capital Conakry. MSF provided testing, treatment and psychosocial counselling, trained and supervised medical staff and upgraded medical units. By the end of the year, MSF was supplying more than 4,000 patients with antiretroviral therapy, including many patients co-infected with tuberculosis (TB). MSF has continued to push for the decentralisation of HIV/AIDS care to smaller health centres to allow patients to be treated closer to their homes.  

Health in prisons

Having carried out an emergency medical and nutritional programme in several Guinean prisons, MSF issued a report to highlight the poor living conditions of prisoners. The report found that in Guéckédou, one in three adult male prisoners was suffering from malnutrition, and the unhygienic conditions had led to dehydration and widespread skin and respiratory infections. Overcrowded cells meant that minors were being detained together with adults, and prisoners with TB alongside uninfected inmates. MSF demanded that the national and local authorities act immediately to meet the prisoners’ basic needs.

 

Malaria

Malaria is the main cause of death in Guinea. Between August and October, MSF teams distributed more than 78,000 mosquito nets impregnated with insecticide to 38,000 households living in Matam district.

 

Patient story

Marianna, mother of six, Conakry

‘We were very happy to receive these mosquito nets. Now we can’t even hear the mosquitoes anymore! In the evening, we set them up in the room and the ten family members can sleep under them. We also got rid of the rubbish near our home, so now there are fewer mosquitoes around.’