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 ...
“It’s not airborne?”
If someone sneezed/coughed on you and it hits your eyes or hand you touch your mouth . . . toast.
Or touch a surface after someone failed to wipe properly . . .
But these patients ARE Level 4 bio-hazards. How many top doctors investigating this disease can we afford to potentially lose? While I'm not a doctor, I think you can offer effective treatment but at the same time, protect yourself.
They are, but doctors and nurses didn’t get into that line of work to lock people up behind 2 layers of barrier and watch them die. They want to help people, and helping people means interacting with people, which means violating level 4 protocols (especially in the 3rd world where such protocols are basically impossible to setup in the first place). It’s the risk they knowingly signed up for, if they weren’t willing to take it they’d have stayed in a safer section of medicine. It sucks that they periodically get the diseases they fight and die from them, but like the man said “this is the life they have chosen”.
Not a good sign. The doctor had probably been treating many more patients than during a common (if there is such a thing) outbreak.
A “bring out yer dead” ping, also.
Generally this starts in the jungle then moves into one city. This time it started in three cities... That’s just NOT how it happens naturally.
Illegals are being flown around the county without medical checks... the obviously sick are being taken to undisclosed locations.
Homeland has enough bullets to kill everyone in the United States several times over.
Illegal children are being flown around the county without medical checks... the obviously sick are being taken to undisclosed locations.
Homeland has enough bullets to kill everyone in the United States several times over. People who normally protect our borders are busy babysitting...
Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.
The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.
So far the false positive rate is 100%.
At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.
*sigh* Such is life, and death...
The man was a professional. He was hoping to protect others from dying.
That's right. Blame the victim. Have you ever done anything like that?
It's posts like this that send me over to Legal insurrection and conservative treehouse
What are you on your period or something?
Of course he was helping people. It’s kind da important to figure out how this expert got it. Ya know just in case there’s something new.
I join in prayer for this brave man!
yeah I’m sure he was careless. maybe he was on his period or something.
You are a moron.
May God bless him and keep him.
You need to read before you let your emotions run rampant.
All bodily fluids of the infected carry the virus--sweat, saliva, mucous, included--not just their blood.
I know a lot of professional, careful people who had a moment's lapse in other jobs that got them hurt or worse, and fatigue is often the deciding factor.
Sometimes 99.999% just isn't enough.
I wouldn't blame anyone, in this instance. It's just a shame that this doctor got infected.
The reason it’s “burned itself out” in the past was it struck in remote villages. It’s a different story in big cities with high mobility, and that’s the problem...
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