CONAKRY
Guinean President Alpha Conde on Wednesday called on his country's retired doctors to return to service to help fight the deadly Ebola virus.
The President said many of Guinea's health workers had left the country because the virus head threatened their lives, even as some volunteering doctors continued to work hard to keep the virus at bay.
The Guinean President expressed anger that his country had to struggle against the virus, while required medical supplies and equipment were unavailable.
Some of Guinea's retired doctors, meanwhile, said they could return to work if hospitals were provided with needed supplies and equipment.
These doctors said they had participated in fighting the virus before, even as hospitals continued to suffer a shortage of these supplies and equipment, which at the end cost some of them their lives.
Around 37 doctors, out of a total of 76, lost their lives in Guinea after contracting the deadly Ebola virus, according to figures released by the Guinea Communications Ministry.
Around 1,350 people have contracted the deadly virus in the poor African country so far, including 778 people who died of it, the ministry added.
Ebola has claimed the lives of 4,447 people in west Africa so far, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday. The organization added that 8,914 people had contracted the virus in this region in total.
A tropical fever that first appeared in 1976 in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ebola can be transmitted to humans from wild animals.
It can also reportedly spread through contact with the body fluids of infected persons or of those who have died of the virus.
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