[misanthropy]

By Umaru Fofana and Adam Bailes

FREETOWN, July 29 (Reuters) - 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 the deaths 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.

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 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 Frontieres in the far north of Sierra Leone.

He died on Tuesday afternoon, less than a week after his diagnosis was announced, and on the same day that President Ernest Bai Koroma was due 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 haemorrhagic fevers," said the chief medical officer, Brima Kargbo.

Weak health systems are struggling to contain the disease despite international help ranging from doctors to safety equipment.

The 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 the first death was reported last week in Nigeria's coastal city of Lagos, home to 21 million people.

Togo-based Asky said it would no longer take on food in Guinea, where the outbreak was first identified. It said that passengers leaving the Guinean capital Conakry would be checked for signs of the disease before departure.

The airline added that medical teams would be deployed to screen passengers in transit through its Lome hub. The victim was a Liberian who traveled to Nigeria on Asky via Lome.

Nigeria's largest carrier, Arik Air, has suspended flights to Liberia and Sierra Leone because of the Ebola risk.

The fatality rate of the current outbreak is around 60 percent although the disease can kill up to 90 percent of those who catch it.

On Monday, a U.S. administration official said President Barack Obama was receiving updates and noted that U.S. agencies had stepped up assistance to help contain the virus. (Additional reporting by Emma Farge and Bate Felix in Dakar; Writing by David Lewis and Daniel Flynn; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

More Information:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/0...n_5630878.html
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Sorry if this is a repost. There's plenty of news out there on this, lots of media hype. I'm not one to fall for the hype but this outbreak has left me curious. My question is: you guys seem like a pretty level-headed group, do you think we should be worrying about this disease spreading?
I for one would hate to be a doctor working over there right now

[mrm1109]

Hmm..I'd like to think it wouldn't spread to other countries but I'm not sure. I mean yeah, workers in air ports are trained to look for symptoms of the virus in people traveling but what about the incubation period?

[GG57]

Samaritan's Purse Doctor, Kent Brantley, is infected with Ebola and not doing well. Samaritan's Purse is part of the Bill/Franklin Graham Cartel.....ummm.....Ministry. (I hate the Grahams)

http://www.samaritanspurse.ca/rss/di...for-ebola.aspx

[Oswald2001]

[QUOTE=GG57;4322066] (I hate the Grahams) /QUOTE]


I love their crackers.

[Mr Poo]

Who would think.. A doctor being around a highly contagious infectious disease, gets sick. Unheard of!

[30564U]

Oh the irony...

[CrunchyCripple]

Not ironic, just likely. Kinda like a firefighter perishing in a fire he's battling.

[Kelseecat65]

I've been watching this for the past few days on TV. It's really scary. The conditions in these countries are disgusting. Ebola started from unsanitary conditions in the hospitals, back in the 1970's, according to a CNN special I watched yesterday.

Despite the doctors being in full body suits, protected from head to toe, sprayed with chlorine and taking the most extreme measures to be safe, there are now four infected Americans who were there simply to treat the sick. One doctor has died. Two other health care workers are in grave condition. If these are the people taking the most precautions, then there is no hope. Not when you have the average citizen over there, living in not so sanitary conditions, not taking such precautions, spreading germs, tending to the dead bodies of their friends/families/ preparing food/ the list goes on.

One man (who was visiting his sick sister) unknowingly contracted it from her. He thought she had malaria. He boarded three planes, and died 5 days later. Never made it back to the states, to see his 3 young girls, all under 5 years old. Thank goodness for that.

They have tried to contact everyone he may have come into contact with on that plane. He got sick on the last plane he was on, was vomiting, diarrhea and coughing, so it would have been easy for some of his nasty fluids to cross over to someone else, even if he sneezed and the fluids passed on to someone via a small cut, one so small it's not visible to the naked eye.
That's the scary part as well.

Another reason I hate planes, they are a breeding ground for every possible germ to be spread amongst the passengers.

[Illusion]

Viruses are tough for doctors and scientists to treat. That's why we still don't have a cure for the common cold or HIV.

[30564U]

Look on the positive side...it's like redevelopment for that part of the world. Think of all the possibilities, economic, politically, and socially. This could be the answer for Western/Central Africa finally moving into the 20th Century.

I'm sorry for the victim's plight, but let's face it, Africa has been hurtling toward either genocide or epidemic for at least the past 200 years. America and Europe have poured literally billions of dollars in aid into Africa and accomplished nothing but despot governments, plague, economic/social instability, political malfeasance, massive corruption, etc. Maybe it's time to just cut Africa off and let things run their course. Then move in and basically start from scratch. This might also be a model for the Middle East as well.