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A young Guinean doctor, Dr. Ousmane Touré, originally from Guinea, lost his life in a building collapse after the 7.2 magnitude earthquake that struck Haiti on August 14. He was a specialist in public health crises and was commissioned by the WHO.
as reported from Conakry, Mouctar Bah
WHO Director – General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus paid tribute to Dr. Ousmane Touré on Wednesday 18 August. “A brilliant epidemiologist, hardworking, devoted” according to the Director-General of the WHO, who was married and the father of two little girls.
I express my deepest sympathy after the earthquake that occurred in Haiti??. Among the many victims for whom I bow down piously is our countryman?? Dr Ousmane Touré from #WHO. I extend my special condolences to his family. Peace for their souls? pic.twitter.com/7zF9eQHIPi
– Dr. Mouctar DIALLO (@ MouctarD75) August 16, 2021 Graduated from Gamal Abdel Nasser University in Conakry (Uganc), he began working with the WHO in Guinea, where he supported the polio eradication program from 2009 to 2013. From 2014 to 2016, he began participating in the WHO: ‘s response to Ebola, which hit Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia hard.
He was then sent to Haiti as a field coordinator for the cholera response at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and the WHO’s service from 2017 to 2018.
Then, in November 2018, he returned to Africa to work as a field epidemiologist in The Ebola Response Team from the WHO in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
On behalf of Covid-19 in Haiti, Dr Touré arrived in Haiti in July 2020 to work for PAHO as an international emergency consultant as part of the Covid-19 response. At the time of his disappearance, Dr. Touré received an advanced master’s degree in public health from the University of Geneva and a master’s degree in international cooperation and humanitarian aid from the KALU Institute in Madrid. He was 39 years old.
In Guinea, one of his friends and collaborators, Dr. Mohamed Sitan Keïta, who studied medicine with Dr. Ousmane Touré, also pays tribute:
Mohamed Sitan Keïta: Dr Touré “was one of the first five doctors deployed” for the response to Ebola
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