Policy and Health Practices in Guinea During the Ebola Epidemics: The Example of Conakry
This article describes and analyses the health practices of the inhabitants of Conakry, in a context of a dysfunctional health system. It shows that health decentralization policies are largely ineffective because therapeutic paths tend to follow social ties and create a personalization of the relationships between health workers and patients. Furthermore, this article explains how the problems in mastering and monitoring the patients’ medical choices have represented an obstacle to the eradication of the Ebola epidemics. Such difficulties have been thrived by the coexistence of the private and public sectors and by the strong mobility of populations between rural and urban areas.