-dr-martin-salia-has-died-from Ebola
CNN) -- A doctor who was on the front lines fighting the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone has died from complications of the disease, Doctors Without Borders said Tuesday.
Dr. Sheik Humarr Khan
fell ill early last week while overseeing Ebola treatment at Kenema
Government Hospital, about 185 miles east of Sierra Leone's capital
city, Freetown.
He was treated by the
French aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres -- also known as Doctors
Without Borders -- in Kailahun, Sierra Leone, up until his death,
spokesman Tim Shenk said.
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"RIP Dr. Sheik Humarr Khan," wrote one of the many people who remembered Khan fondly on Twitter. "What a hero. What a loss."
A University of Sierra
Leone graduate, Khan worked for that African country's Ministry of
Health and Sanitation, including as head of the Lassa fever program at
Kenema Government Hospital, according to the Viral Hemorrhagic Fever Consortium.
Lassa fever is a virus common in west Africa, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notes.
While in that latter
post, Khan contracted with the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone,
consulted with the World Health Organization/Tulane University on its
Mano River Union Lassa fever network and was physician-in-charge of his
hospital's HIV/AIDS program.
"His valiant work will
not be forgotten," Dr. Penninah Iutung Amor, AIDS Healthcare
Foundation's Africa bureau chief, said in a statement. "In a country
that has fewer than 200 medical doctors in its entire public health
sector, the loss of even one doctor is a loss too great."
Khan continued his
training in Ghana from 2010 to 2013, before returning to head the Kenema
Government Hospital's Lassa fever program and becoming a lecturer at
the University of Sierra Leone. The Viral Hemorrhagic Fever Consortium
described him as "one of the world's leading experts in the clinical
care of viral hemorrhagic fevers" -- among them, Ebola.
Map: The Ebola outbreak
This disease typically
kills 90% of those infected, but the death rate in this outbreak has
dropped to roughly 60% because of early treatment. The outbreak is
happening primarily in three West African countries: Guinea, where it
began, Liberia and Sierra Leone.
As of July 23, the World
Health Organization had confirmed more than 800 Ebola cases in the
region, but it suspects there have been many unreported infections and
there may be as many as 1,200 cases.
Sierra Leone has been hardest hit, with approximately 525 cases.
"Dr. Khan was an
extremely determined and courageous doctor who cared deeply for his
patients," Doctors Without Borders said in a statement.
"His work and dedication
have been greatly appreciated by the medical community in Sierra Leone
for many years. He will be remembered and missed by many, especially by
the doctors and nurses that worked with him. MSF's sincere thoughts and
condolences are with Dr. Khan's family, friends and colleagues."
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