Posted on 07/23/2014 9:55:04 AM PDT by blam
Reuters
July 23, 2014
The head doctor fighting the deadly tropical virus Ebola in Sierra Leone has himself caught the disease, the government said.
The 39-year-old Sheik Umar Khan, hailed as a "national hero" by the health ministry, was leading the fight to control an outbreak that has killed 206 people in the West African country. Ebola kills up to 90 percent of those infected and there is no cure or vaccine.
Across Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, more than 600 people have died from the illness, according to the World Health Organisation, placing great strain on the health systems of some of Africa's poorest countries.
Khan, a Sierra Leonean virologist credited with treating more than 100 Ebola victims, has been transferred to a treatment ward run by medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres, according to the statement released late on Tuesday by the president's office.
Health minister Miatta Kargbo called Khan a national hero and said she would "do anything and everything in my power to ensure he survives".
(snip)
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Brave man.
National hero, probably. But the health minister can do nothing to ensure he survives except pray.
So how did he contract it? Was he careless or is there a infect method he didnt know about.
You’ve gotta give the man credit...he doesn’t lead from behind like so many leaders do.
Sounds like the disease a community organizer for change could find quite useful. Sort of like blankets with smallpox infection secretions to natives.
We need to bring those poor infected people here where we can care for them. To do otherwise would be racist and xenophobic.
(I’m practicing to be a Democrat.)
Ping...and if you are so inclined, your prayers for a brave man. He has mine.
They can pump him full of fluids and coagulants to control the haemorrhaging to give his body time to fight the virus, its not a guarantee that he’ll pull through, but that would give him a better chance than doing nothing.
It's my understand that the disease is so virulent that it routinely affects doctors and nurses who treat victims.Being somewhat familiar with medical services in that part of the world I'd say it's quite likely that hospitals there lack the resources to carry out standard infection control measures...which surely could explain why medical people contract it.
Thanks for the ping,and I agree. God bless him.
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This has proven to be fabricated.....
..Yes, the Indians got smallpox, but it was acquired from human contact with Europeans arriving in country
I asked because some people around here claim the threat is overstated and Ebola is difficult to catch.
Must not be too difficult to catch, which means they had better get this under control before it spreads to high population areas.
Ebola as it's known today is virulent, but it's only passed through an exchange of bodily fluids with the victim. If a healthcare professional is treating people with hemorrhagic fever symptoms in this region and they don't take proper procedures to protect themselves, I'd question how much they really know about the disease.
If the doctors or nurses took those precautions, and were still infected, the disease may be spreading through another vector.
Prayers for him and all the brave souls comforting those stricken with this plague.
A British (not American) officer suggested the smallpox blanket idea in a letter to another officer. There is no record of it ever being carried out.
BTW, Ebola is such a tremendously virulent disease that outbreaks tend to “burn themselves out.” It kills so efficiently that it prevents itself from spreading farther.
If I was still at the hospital where I worked for years I could ask a friend there who's a Infectious Disease specialist I knew him since he was a intern).An especially virulent virus is one possible explanation...poor infection control/sanitation practices is another,IMO.
Ebola is spread by bat poop, eating various animals (bat, pig), and person-to-person contact, including just kissing and other sexual contact.
A person’s fluids remains infectious for months after being “cured” of the disease.
It could be put in an aerosol very easily.
Only a matter of time, I suppose.
On the bright side, vaccines look promising. It’s not an overly complex virus.
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