The doctor leading Sierra Leone’s fight against the worst Ebola outbreak on record has died from the virus, the country’s chief medical officer said.
The death of Sheik Umar Khan, who was credited with treating more than 100 patients, follows the deaths of dozens of local health workers and the infection of two American medics in neighbouring Liberia, highlighting the dangers faced by staff trying to halt the disease’s spread across western Africa.
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 Organisation.
The contagious disease, which has no known cure, has symptoms that include vomiting, diarrhoea and internal and external bleeding.
The 39-year-old Dr Khan, hailed as a “national hero” by the health ministry, had been moved to a treatment ward run by medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres in the far north of Sierra Leone.
He died on Tuesday afternoon (local time), less than a week after his diagnosis was announced, and on the same day president Ernest Bai Koroma was due to visit his treatment centre in the north-eastern town of Kailahun.
“It is a big and irreparable loss to Sierra Leone as he was the only specialist the country had in viral haemorrhagic fevers,” chief medical officer Brima Kargbo said.
Weak health systems are struggling to contain the disease despite international help, ranging from doctors to safety equipment.
Nigeria’s first fatal case reportedly an American man
West African airline Asky has suspended flights to and from Sierra Leone and Liberia as concern over the spread of the virus has increased since last week when the first death was reported in Nigeria’s coastal city of Lagos, home to 21 million people.
The 40-year-old victim was reportedly an American who travelled to Nigeria from Liberia on Asky via Lome.
Decontee Sawyer from Minnesota told NBC News her husband, Patrick Sawyer, who was working for the Liberian government, collapsed on July 20 in Lagos.
She said he had been working in Liberia since 2008.
Mr Sawyer had been put in isolation in a hospital in Nigeria and died on Friday.
Reuters was not immediately able to reach Decontee Sawyer to confirm the information.
Two other Americans infected with Ebola while in Liberia to help fight the disease, Dr Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, are still hospitalised, according to SIM – the faith-based international relief group with which they work.
Nigeria’s largest carrier, Arik Air, has also suspended flights to Liberia and Sierra Leone because of the Ebola risk.
The fatality rate of the current outbreak is about 60 per cent, although the disease can kill up to 90 per cent of those who catch it.
On Monday, a US administration official said president Barack Obama was receiving updates and noted that US agencies had stepped up assistance to help contain the virus.
Reuters