Investing in preparedness for rapid detection and control of epidemics: analysis of health system reforms and their effect on 2021 Ebola virus disease epidemic response in Guinea.

The 2014-2016 West Africa Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) Epidemic devastated Guinea's health system and constituted a public health emergency of international concern. Following the crisis, Guinea invested in the establishment of basic health system reforms and crucial legal instruments for strengthening national health security in line with the WHO's recommendations for ensuring better preparedness for (and, therefore, a response to) health emergencies. The investments included the scaling up of Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response; Joint External Evaluation of International Health Regulation capacities; National Action Plan for Health Security; Simulation Exercises; One Health platforms; creation of decentralised structures such as regional and prefectural Emergency Operation Centres; Risk assessment and hazard identification; Expanding human resources capacity; Early Warning Alert System and community preparedness.

Perceptions of COVID-19 among communities of Conakry (Guinea): a qualitative study exploring the context of the ANRS COV33 Coverage-Africa therapeutic trial.

Objectives: To explore communities' perceptions about COVID-19 in the context of the ANRS COV33 Coverage-Africa clinical trial evaluating the efficacy of treatments in preventing clinical worsening of COVID-19.

Design: Descriptive qualitative study using semistructured in-depth individual interviews conducted by telephone in French and Soussou between May and September 2021. Data were transcribed, translated in French when applicable and analysed with the thematic analysis method.

Facilitators and barriers to COVID-19 vaccination among healthcare workers and the general population in Guinea.

Introduction: The advent of the effective COVID-19 vaccine was the most eagerly expected worldwide. However, this hope quickly became hesitation and denial in many countries, including Guinea. Understanding the reasons for low vaccine coverage is essential to achieving herd immunity leading to disease control.

Clinical presentation, outcomes and factors associated with mortality: A prospective study from three COVID-19 referral care centres in West Africa.

Objectives: The overall death toll from COVID-19 in Africa is reported to be low but there is little individual-level evidence on the severity of the disease. This study examined the clinical spectrum and outcome of patients monitored in COVID-19 care centres (CCCs) in two West-African countries.

Methods: Burkina Faso and Guinea set up referral CCCs to hospitalise all symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 carriers, regardless of the severity of their symptoms.

Investigation of a cross-border case of Lassa fever in West Africa.

Background: Infectious disease prevention and control strategies require a coordinated, transnational approach. To establish core capacities of the International Health Regulations (IHR), the World Health Organization (WHO) developed the Integrated Diseases Surveillance and Response (IDSR) strategy. Epidemic-prone Lassa fever, caused by Lassa virus, is an endemic disease in the West African countries of Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Benin, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Togo and Nigeria.

[Multifocal tuberculosis associated with cerebral toxoplasmosis in an African immigrant immunocompromised patient due to HIV-infection at the Hospital Centre in Soissons, France].

In the industrialized countries and, in particular, in France, given the means of prevention, early screening and treatment of HIV infection, there is almost no evidence of opportunistic infections among immigrants and in some disadvantaged socio-professional groups. We here report the case of a 42-year old African immigrant HIV1 positive man with impaired general condition hospitalized for infectious syndrome. He had received antiretroviral therapy for 2 years and stopped it four months before admission.

Interferon β-1a for the treatment of Ebola virus disease: A historically controlled, single-arm proof-of-concept trial.

To date there are no approved antiviral drugs for the treatment of Ebola virus disease (EVD). Based on our in vitro evidence of antiviral activity of interferon (IFN)-ß activity against Ebola virus, we conducted a single arm clinical study in Guinea to evaluate the safety and therapeutic efficacy of IFN β-1a treatment for EVD. Nine individuals infected with Ebola virus were treated with IFN β-1a and compared retrospectively with a matched cohort of 21 infected patients receiving standardized supportive care only during the same time period at the same treatment unit.

The Prevalence of HIV in Cancer Patients at the Surgical Oncology Unit of Donka University Hospital of Conakry (Guinea).

Aim. To determine the prevalence of HIV infection among patients seen at the surgical oncology unit of Donka (Conakry, Guinea). Method.

Clinical predictors of mortality in patients with Ebola virus disease.

In an observational cohort study including 89 Ebola patients, predictive factors of death were analyzed. The crude mortality rate was 43.8%.