The
doctor leading Sierra Leone’s fight against the worst Ebola outbreak on record
died from the virus on Tuesday, the country’s chief medical officer said. The
death of Sheik Umar Khan, who was credited with treating more than 100
patients, follows those of dozens of local health workers and the infection of
two American medics in neighboring Liberia, highlighting the dangers faced by
staff trying to halt the disease’s spread across West Africa.
Reuters
reports that Ebola is believed to have killed 672 people in Guinea, Liberia and
Sierra Leone since the outbreak began in February, according to the World
Health Organization.
The
contagious disease, which has no known cure, has symptoms that include
vomiting, diarrhea and internal and external bleeding. The fatality rate of the
current outbreak is around 60 percent although Ebola can kill up to 90 percent
of those who catch it.
The
39-year-old Khan, hailed as a “national hero” by the Health Ministry, had been
moved to a treatment ward run by the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontiers in
the far north of Sierra Leone.
He
died less than a week after his diagnosis was announced, and shortly before
President Ernest Bai Koroma arrived to visit his treatment center in the
northeastern town of Kailahun.
“It
is a big and irreparable loss to Sierra Leone as he was the only specialist the
country had in viral hemorrhagic fevers,” said the chief medical officer, Brima
Kargbo.
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