Ebola virus: Top Sierra Leone doctor, Sheik Umar Khan, dies of disease aged 39

[n2doc]

Source: Independent UK

The top doctor treating patients infected with the Ebola virus in Sierra Leone has died from the disease, officials have confirmed.

Dr Sheik Umar Khan had been hospitalised in quarantine since he contracted the virus last week. The virologist was credited with treating more than 100 patients at the hospital in Kenema - one of the world’s leading Ebola diagnosis facilities.

The current outbreak is the largest in history, so far killing more than 672 people across West Africa since the outbreak began in February, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). Nations affected include Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Nigeria.

Dr Khan's death on Tuesday afternoon was confirmed by chief medical officer Dr Brima Kargbo, who had previously hailed him as a "national hero" when she announced he had contracted the the disease.



Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/africa/ebola-virus-top-sierra-leone-doctor-shek-umar-dies-of-disease-9636406.html

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Huge loss for the country.

[DURHAM D]

1. Oh no.

RIP

[TygrBright]

2. Huge loss for humanity.

Physicians dedicated to saving lives in such difficult circumstances and environments are among our treasures, and it hurts to lose them.

sadly,
Bright

[oberliner]

3. A true hero

Very sad to hear of his passing.

[bigwillq]

4. Damn. That's terrible.

RIP.

A true hero indeed. Rest well, Sir.

[onecent]

5. OMG This is

beginning to scare the beejesus out of me...If it hits the US it's gonna keep ALOT OF PEOPLE HOME...I am one of them....
glad I'm retired.....dammmmnnnnn

[PeoViejo]

8. They do wear protective suits

but all it takes is a tiny drop of infected body fluids to contract the disease. He had to take the suit off, risking contamination.

[grahamhgreen]

10. Yes, they do.

[Marrah_G]

37. Protective but not bio suits

[bemildred]

7. Now that is the sort of person we need in politics. nt

[hedda_foil]

9. I dread saying this, but the communicability of the virus seems to be increased.

From what I've read about this disease, it was believed by the medical community to be transmitted only through direct personal contact with an infected person's bodily secretions. But the protocols used by this doctor and the rest of the hospital staff treating Ebola patients should have been more than sufficient to avoid their becoming infected. I hope that this doesn't mean that it's become communicable through aerosolized droplets from patients' coughing or breathing. Although this was a possibility, it hadn't been seen before this outbreak.

[Laffy Kat]

11. Beginning to wonder.

Another filovirus, Marburg, became aerosolized, although I think it only infected lab monkeys. If you truly want to wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat I recommend Hot Zone by Richard Preston. Fascinating and terrifying.

[onecent]

13. Yes, I began reading that book about a month ago, then had

company, and am now almost afraid to pick it back up.

[Zorra]

14. I hear you. Dr Sheik Umar Khan was a virologist, so it's

pretty safe say he knew what he was doing and took every precaution not to come into contact with body fluids from infected patients.

Airborne Ebola could be our "Captain Trips".

No expense should be spared to contain this awful disease.

[magical thyme]

25. I read that he even had a mirror behind him when he was suiting up

to make sure that nothing was exposed anywhere.

I also read the the American doctor and American worker who were diagnosed last week are believed to have been exposed while the doctor was suiting up in the dressing room. Apparently 2 local workers that were in the room with them on one particular day were both been diagnosed shortly after. So it seemed as though they picked it up outside the hospital and then transmitted it before they were showing symptoms.

[gvstn]

16. I believe the woman was not a medical professional.

She was a missionary but one of her tasks was spraying down/decontaminating personnel who were entering and leaving the quarantine area. So there could have been some splashback type scenario. It was basically just a tent and a spraying apparatus but she was probably only 6-10 feet away from those coming out of the quarantine area. Some video here (spraying scene is in the first minute or so) http://abcnews.go.com/Health/american-contracts-ebola-liberia/story?id=24733440

And here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2709140/American-Ebola-victim-terrified-say-colleagues-tell-dedicated-life-Africa-refused-flee-young-family-virus-began-spread.html If you scroll down and look at the pics it appears that different folks are wearing different versions of protective gear; different shoes different layers of clothing and in only one is any one wearing protective eye gear.
So I think they are following protocols but "in the field" they might not always have "perfect" equipment.

I hope it is imperfect gear rather than a more virulent strain.

[PADemD]

24. I hope they are in quarantine

His family had returned to the U.S. for a pre-planned trip last week, before he found out about his condition. They have shown no signs of the disease.

MailOnline understands that his wife is not at their home in Fort Worth, Texas, but is elsewhere and staying with family.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2709140/American-Ebola-victim-terrified-say-colleagues-tell-dedicated-life-Africa-refused-flee-young-family-virus-began-spread.html#ixzz38wAWp8cm
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

[LisaL]

35. From what has been reported, the family is not in quarantinee.

With incubation period of up to 21 days, that doesn't seem wise to me at all.

[suffragette]

23. This is doubly scary, both in terms of what you have noted and in possible reactions

I was just reading an article yesterday about some villages resisting treatment because they believed that medical staff were spreading the disease.
Now with the news that this doctor has died and other doctors are ill, there is likely to be even more resistance to identification and treatment/quarantine.

[Marrah_G]

38. Accidents happen especially in a setting like that

Accidents even happen in a level 4 lab with all the best and latest equipment.

[laundry_queen]

53. The scary thing

is it has always been theorized that if the virus did make the leap to become airborne, the death rate would likely be significantly less than 50-90%. The death rate with this outbreak is still very high, I read at 50%. If it has become airborne, with the high death rate, that would not be good at all. I really hope the people taking care of the sick who have contracted it got it because of an error (got splashed with fluids or something) and NOT that the virus has become airborne.

[B2G]

55. The other scary thing is

the number of healthcare workers who have contracted this...while wearing full hazmat suits.

[catbyte]

12. That disease is terrifying. Probably the only thing saving us from a worldwide

pandemic is that it's such an efficient killer. Although I heard an unsettling report on NBC Nightly News tonight that said there were 84 direct flights daily from the effected areas in Africa to the USA. Gack.

What a loss.

[magical thyme]

26. efficiency is what has prevented a worldwide pandemic in the past, combined with it erupting in

remote villages. Entire villages were wiped out before it could spread to other villages.

In this situation, however, it has been erupting in more populated areas. That is also why the American who traveled on an international flight into a major city with it is so worrying. It's the first time it has had the opportunity to spread to densely populated areas.

[Rozlee]

33. Well, there have been cases in Russia and the UK when lab workers have contracted it

via lab exposure. I'd like to think that such breaches of safety are always detected before the infected go out into the community, but all it would take is one.

[magical thyme]

45. If that is the case, I wonder what protocols they are following

Because in the US something like ebola would be classified as a Biosafety Level 4.

I can't imagine how it could breach that without either instrument failure or a major human error.

Just googled; they appear to use the same protocols.

In 2004 a Russian lab worker died from ebola due to an accidental needlestick. In that situation, the worker knows *immediately* that they have been exposed. So they would be immediately isolated, before the infection had a chance to get going, and immediately treated. I know that if a lab tech is exposed to, say Hep C, they are immediately treated with immune system boosters (gamma globulin, possibly others).

A German lab worker had an accidental needlestick with ebola in 2009. Apparently there is an unapproved (never even tested on humans, but effective in other primates.) vaccine developed in Canada that they shipped to her. They had to guess at the dosage. She was vaccinated within 40 hours of the needlestick and, per the article, had a fever spike 12 hours after the vaccine. Other than the fever spike, she was symptom free at 8 days. Didn't see any follow up and her name was not revealed.

[Rozlee]

47. We love to think our labs are safe.

I do, and I'm not usually conspiracy minded, but I'm reminded of the Anthrax terrorist and how the biological agent was stolen from a top government lab with no one the wiser. Consulting google though, I'm reading that Anthrax is considered Biosafety Level 3, since there's a treatment for it.

[tblue37]

51. Considering the recent screw-ups with live smallpox and anthrax cultures

being mishandled by the CDC, I always assume that human error will occur, if not today, then tomorrow, or the next day, or the next. . . .

[Squinch]

27. Don't count your chickens.

[msanthrope]

15. A hero. We are the lesser for his loss. nt

[SunSeeker]

17. ...

[Stryst]

18. Full bio gear

Is also hot and heavy. Working and sweating all day in the stuff can suck the life out of you, so if these folks don't get some serious support, we're going to see care workers dropping of exhaustion and making mistakes.

[magical thyme]

28. I read an interview with a doctor recently returned while at work yesterday

She described the working situation in the gear. They try to limit themselves to working for 1 hour stretches, during which time they can sweat 2+ litres of water. It takes them 2 hours to rehydrate after a 1 hour stint. It wreaks havoc on their bodies.

Of course, that means they are suiting up and decontaminating/unsuiting multiple times throughout the day, each time risks a mistake and accidental exposure.

And the American doctor who now has it was pushing himself to work 3 hour shifts.

I suspect that is why they are dying even though they are diagnosed at the first hint of symptoms and receive immediate treatment, they're bodies are already very stressed.

[Stryst]

48. And it's not just the water

If they don't have proper salt rations and TIME for the water to actually hydrate them, then... well, we know how bad it is. When I was in Iraq, I didn't understand why I was being given salt pills until the first morning I woke up feeling hung over and the shirt I had laid out was solid white with dried salt.

This is one of those scary situations where I wish I was just a little less sick and weak, because I would rather see it contained and dealt with than spreading through an airport or something. Death by ebola is scary, but seeing triage lines in Chicago or New York is a whole lot scarier.

http://www.samaritanspurse.org/disaster/ebola-crisis/

Stop it in Africa, because ebola in Asia, Europe, or the America's will spread like fire. Especially in the US where we have dense cities, lots of traffic between them, and not enough medical care for everyone that would need it.

[magical thyme]

50. yes, electrolytes plus water are essential. nt

[Rhiannon12866]

19. How tragic!

First the loss of the AIDS researchers and now this!

[L0oniX]

21. Are we still worried about terrorists?

[YarnAddict]

29. I read yesterday that they were trying

to transfer an infected doc to a hospital in Europe for treatment. Does anyone know if it was this doctor? It seems that there is a truly alarming number of healthcare workers who have caught it.

What a horrible disease.

[onecent]

30. OMG, do you remember where you read that?

I think that would be kind of dumb...I think this could get very ugly.

[B2G]

31. Yes, Gemany was going to take him for treatment

He never made it.

"German authorities were expecting the arrival of Sheik Umar Khan, an Ebola expert who caught the disease while treating patients in Sierra Leone, but he died before he could be transported."

http://rt.com/news/176628-eu-ebola-high-alert/

[LisaL]

34. Seems very dangerous, considering three doctors already caught it. Two of them are already dead.

One who is still alive is reportedly not doing well.
And there really is no treatment right now as far as I can tell, except supportive care. Seems like supportive care can be provided in place.

[YarnAddict]

43. I'm wondering about the family of the doc who

sent his family home just a few days before he started showing symptoms. I wonder if they could have been infected.

This is a very scary situation.

[onecent]

40. Thanks this is getting pretty scarey!

[B2G]

41. You want to really get scared?

Read "The Hot Zone", by Preston. True story.

http://learn.flvs.net/educator/common/EnglishIIv10/TheHotZone.pdf

[Stryst]

49. Wow

Didn't realize you were linking to the full book. Thanks, I just finished what I was reading (Terminal Freeze by Lincoln Child, don't bother unless you've read everything else in your house).

Oh, and large PDF warning for anyone who clicks on the link.

[laundry_queen]

52. Thanks for the link.

I had read the book years ago but didn't 'get' the book in my divorce, lol, so haven't read it in a long time. Now I can re-read it. Thank you.

[B2G]

54. You're welcome

I started it again yesterday and am halfway through (lot of typos, but they're manageable).

It's terrifying.

[onecent]

42. B2G, I just read the article and it says a person in Hong Kong

has been hospitalized with suspected Ebola, and had visited Africa. OH my that can take down ALOT OF PEOPLE. I remember the first time I heard about Ebola, in the 70's, and my children were little and it was all I could think about for months and months. I still cannot imagine why they would be willing to take a case in Germany.

But I don't understand half of the crap we see in the news every day. Thanks again for posting the article.

[YarnAddict]

44. Hong Kong!!

Makes me think of The Stand by Stephen King.

[B2G]

46. I believe she was cleared.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ebola-outbreak-hong-kong-woman-3934385

[onecent]

56. Whew!! Awesome and thanks for the link. n/a

[maddezmom]

32. So sad

Huge loss for the world.

[Marrah_G]

36. So sad

[closeupready]

39. So sad. I was following this, and hoping he'd pull through.

Just goes to show you how virulent this virus is.