Professor Oumou Younoussa Sow is a medical doctor with a speciality in pneumology and international health. She is Head of the Pneumology Unit at the Ignace Deen National Hospital. She is the President of the National Ethics Committee for Health Research in Guinea which had a pivotal role in the direction and ethical implications of Ebola research in the 2013-2015 outbreak. Her main research activities are focused on tuberculosis (TB) and AIDS.

Professor Sow has been teaching Pneumo-phtisiology in the Faculty of Medicine since 1975. She is Head of Chair of Pneumology and member of several technical and scientific committees and commissions of the University of Conakry. Since 1992, she conducts international activities as a consultant for several agencies such as WHO, UNAIDS and several international NGOs. 

In 1981 she secured free TB treatment for people across Guinea and won the accession of Guinea to the International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease (IUATLD) – both crucial in tackling TB across the region. In 1986, Prof Sow helped to establish the Guinea Association against Tuberculosis (AGLAT) and a National Anti-Tuberculosis Programme aimed at bringing TB treatments to rural parts of the country. She has also been instrumental in the fight against AIDS in Guinea, as the previous leader of Clinical and Epidemiology section of the National Committee to Fight Against AIDS.

In 1990, she became the first Guinean woman certified to teach medicine. In 2003, she was awarded the Karel Styblo Prize (Prize given to people for their outstanding contribution to TB control in their country and in the world). In 2008, Ms. Sow received the "Medal of Female Model", given by the Guinean Ministry of Social Affairs of Women and Children in a number of women for their significant contribution to the emancipation of women and socio-economic development of Guinea. The same year, she was elevated to the rank of "Knight of the National Order of Merit" awarded by the President of the Republic of Guinea.