Top ebola doctor has contracted the ebola virus

As Reuters reports on Slate.com, a lead virologist from Sierra Leon is now in a treatment ward with ebola, where three nurses have passed in the last week:

Sheik Umar Khan, the doctor leading anti-Ebola efforts in Sierra Leone—one of three western African countries that have been hit by an outbreak—has contracted the virus himself, Reuters reports. 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". "I am afraid for my life, I must say, because I cherish my life," Khan said in an interview before he developed symptoms of infection. Three nurses at the facility where he worked have died in the last week.

More credit must be given to those who work with its victims in an effort to give comfort and understand more about this virus. It is truly a labor of love for humanity. Someone will hopefully save this generous soul.

originally posted by: chasingbrahman
More credit must be given to those who work with its victims in an effort to give comfort and understand more about this virus. It is truly a labor of love for humanity. Someone will hopefully save this generous soul.

Agreed "THESE ARE EA*RTH ANGELS" May the LORD watch over and strengthen them in health for their dangerous services.

Well that just sucks. Guessing there is no word on how he got it? Maybe having the virus will give him better incite on it and help him cure him self and others.

originally posted by: ObjectZero
Well that just sucks. Guessing there is no word on how he got it? Maybe having the virus will give him better incite on it and help him cure him self and others.

I'm hoping he has that chance. With the nurses dying, and with this newest potential loss, I wonder how many really good doctors and nurses are going to dare to take their place.

Well, damn that sucks..

I feel for the guy, he knew when working with fire he could get burnt, but still
did it for what seems unselfish reasons.

Sure i'd call him a hero on what I have read, seems like a great person to loose.
Hope he makes it too.

I can't help but to feel a bit worried about this situation.



It really reminds me of that movie outbreak....

Didn't the same thing happen with the doctor in the movie.


What ever the case may be Ill make dua (prayer) for these people...

Don't know what else to say other than its a shame. That and it reminds me of the boomerang effect, where the medicine man/healer eats the sickness. Sooner or later you are met with your reward, death. No good deed goes unpunished.

originally posted by: ObjectZero
Well that just sucks. Guessing there is no word on how he got it? Maybe having the virus will give him better incite on it and help him cure him self and others.

Likely a syringe accident those are normal were most accidents happen.

“A doctor, like anyone else who has to deal with human beings, each of them unique, cannot be a scientist: he is either, like the surgeon, a craftsman, or, like the physician and the psychologist, an artist. This means that in order to be a good doctor a man must also have a good character, that is to say, whatever weaknesses and foibles he may have, he must," as W.H. Auden wrote, “love his fellow human beings in the concrete and desire their good before his own.”

www.poets.org...

hope he pulls through i know that few do but hey gotta have hope some times.have not been following the outbreak very closely but it seems its not dying down like they usually do

This is so sad to hear...

Getting infected with what you are trying to cure.

I really hope this guy gets better.

Anytime you are working with a lot of people who are highly infectious day in and day out in bad conditions and little rest the potential for accidents ramps way up. You'd like to think that they are all on their guard because they know this, but even so, it will wear them down. You can only operate at your top efficiency for so long before you just start to slip.

It's likely what happened to him and to his nurses - they wore down, got a bit sloppy (through no fault of their own), and the odds caught up with them.

As ewok mentioned and my husband seconds, it used to be that the number one way to study diseases was to wait for pin-prick accidents and then study the resulting infections.

a reply to: ketsuko

Yeah even in controlled labs things like that happen.

I saw someone jab a syringe of HIV goo into them by accident.

Iv splashed MRSA in my face due to a centrifugate malfunction. And Iv seen a dozen other slip ups.

That was in a comfortable air conned lab in the suburbs of London on a normal 9-5 job.

In a stressed poorly equipped understaffed hot zone? Slip ups are going to happen.

a reply to: crazyewok

When my husband worked at the rabies testing lab, he got water with possibly infected brain tissue splashed in his eyes. Those were some fun days while we waited for those test results. Even when you know he's been vaccinated against rabies ... that's just not something to play with.

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: crazyewok

When my husband worked at the rabies testing lab, he got water with possibly infected brain tissue splashed in his eyes. Those were some fun days while we waited for those test results. Even when you know he's been vaccinated against rabies ... that's just not something to play with.

Errgh

Never dealt with Rabies luckily. In fact except HIV I only ever dealt with Bacteria and fungi. Never liked Virus work. Dont know why. I have grown a number of Cat 3 Bacteria cultures and Im ok, put me in a lab with Viruses and the hairs on my neck stand up.

I wonder if this doctor will receive the Ebola cure.

jid.oxfordjournals.org...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov...
Just look up Ebola and whole blood transfusion

Whole blood transfusion from an Ebola survivor, who has developed antibodies to the virus and survived, drops the mortality rate from 80% down to 12.5%. But of course a whole blood transfusion is not a patentable commodity.

Anyway, hope he gets better

a reply to: chasingbrahman

I don't want to derail this thread, but moments ago I read on Fox News about China sealing off an entire town of 30,000 because of the outbreak of a rather rare disease.

I question, as did the experts in the article, the drastic isolation of the town because of, supposedly, one death said to be from the bubonic plague.

Chine has a presence in Africa these days, and I'm wonder if the Ebola disease has been carried back to China from a visitor/worker?

Given the extremely serious nature of Ebola, would world health authorities and national governments hide this cross-continent transmission from us? Without a doubt China would attempt to hide the whole affair. But what we know about Ebola, if that is the disease in China, the secrecy won't hold long.

originally posted by: Aliensun
a reply to: chasingbrahman

I don't want to derail this thread, but moments ago I read on Fox News about China sealing off an entire town of 30,000 because of the outbreak of a rather rare disease.

I question, as did the experts in the article, the drastic isolation of the town because of, supposedly, one death said to be from the bubonic plague.

Chine has a presence in Africa these days, and I'm wonder if the Ebola disease has been carried back to China from a visitor/worker?

Given the extremely serious nature of Ebola, would world health authorities and national governments hide this cross-continent transmission from us? Without a doubt China would attempt to hide the whole affair. But what we know about Ebola, if that is the disease in China, the secrecy won't hold long.

plague and ebola are two different diseases. one (plague) is bacterial; ersina pestis, or something like that and the other is viral (ebola.)

That's so sad. Reminds me of the flick "Contagion" and Kate Winslett's character, which I watched only last month. I pray for this "present evil age" to end soon and death to finally die! What a world will that be huh?! No more disease, pain, depression, inequity, suffering, failure, poverty, curses, or death ever again. Maranatha Yahushua!

a reply to: stormbringer1701


Duh!

You never, ever question authorities explanations for events?
As I said, time will tell in this instance. But as the suspicions were voiced by an outside authority in the article with more than one comment, we outsiders do have reason to wonder if not doubt.

Here is the Fox News source: www.foxnews.com...

Will definitely pray for this man and all those there who have been fighting the good fight down there helping these people.......

doesnt matter your faith, whoever you beleive in calls us to help those who need us and this man and his people have answered that call........

I pray they are protected and allowed to continue their work.....