N°: 231/2014
3 December 2014 [Abuja, Nigeria]
The first batch of trained volunteer health workers from ECOWAS Member States departed Accra, the Ghanaian capital on Wednesday 3rd December 2014 for Guinea, which along with Liberia and Sierra Leone, are the three West African countries most-hit by the Ebola outbreak.
Under the deployment schedule, 49 of the health workers were airlifted by UN World Food Programme (WFP) plane, for an initial three-month tour to assist Guinea, in coordinated response efforts to defeat the Ebola scourge, which has claimed some 7,000 lives mainly in the three affected countries.
Twenty-seven of the trained volunteers also depart Accra for Sierra Leone on Thursday 4th December 2014, while 39 others will travel to Liberia on Sunday 7th December 2014, all on similar missions.
The first batch of health volunteers that travelled to Guinea on Wednesday was seen off at the airport by Ghana’s Deputy Health Minister Dr. Victor Asare Bampoe and the Deputy Director General of the West African Health Organization (WAHO), Dr. Laurent Aholofon Assogba.
The ECOWAS health workers, including medical doctors, nurses, Lab technicians and epidemiologist from Benin, Niger, Cote d'Ivoire, Ghana, Nigeria and Mali, had undergone five-day intensive training from 24th November 2014 in Accra.
The joint training and deployment initiative by the African Union and ECOWAS through the WAHO, its specialized agency, involves some 150 volunteer health workers.
Directorate of Communications