A health worker with disinfectant spray walks down a street outside the government hospital in Kenema, Sierra Leone, on July 10. Reuters.
Ebola virus.
Officials in Sierra Leone are asking the public to assist in finding the first known resident of the capital to contract Ebola.
Her family forcibly removed her from a hospital in Freetown after she tested positive for the deadly virus. On radio stations around the West African nation, appeals for help in locating the 32-year-old.
“Saudatu Koroma of 25 Old Railway Line, Brima Lane, Wellington,” read the broadcast announcement. “She is a positive case and her being out there is a risk to all. We need the public to help us locate her.”
A scientist separates blood cells from plasma cells to isolate any Ebola RNA in order to test for the virus at the European Mobile Laboratory in Gueckedou April 3, 2014. Reuters.
And related news today, the health minister for Nigeria confirms that a Liberian man died of Ebola in the Nigerian capital Lagos.
He collapsed on arrival in Lagos on Sunday and was taken from the airport and put in quarantine at a hospital in the Nigerian city. Since February, more than 660 people have died of Ebola in West Africa – the world’s deadliest outbreak to date. The virus kills up to 90% of those infected but if patients receive early treatment, they have a better chance of survival.
It spreads through contact with an infected person’s bodily fluids.
This report means what is already the worst Ebola outbreak in history has now reached Africa’s most populated country.
Ebola virus disease has killed 632 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since an outbreak began in February, 2014.
Sheik Umar Khan, head doctor fighting the deadly tropical virus Ebola in Sierra Leone.
Also this week, a doctor who has done “heroic” work to fight Sierra Leon’s Ebola outbreak has himself become infected with the virus.
“Dr. Sheik Humarr Khan is being treated by the French aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres — also known as Doctors Without Borders — in Kailahun, Sierra Leone,” reports CNN.
The Sierra Leonean virologist is credited with treating over 100 Ebola victims. The president’s office reports that he is receiving treatment in a ward run by the international medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres.
