EBOLA NEWS - Doctor treated at British-run Ebola military clinic in Sierra Leone dies

Doctor treated at British-run Ebola military clinic in Sierra Leone dies

Sierra Leonean medic is the eighth doctor to die of Ebola in the country

An aerial view of the Kerry Town Ebola treatment centre on the outskirts of Freetown, Sierra Leone. Photograph: AFP/Getty

A doctor who was being treated at an Ebola clinic run by British military medical staff in Sierra Leone has died.

The death of Thomas Rogers at the clinic in Kerry Town on Friday brings the number of doctors in Sierra Leone who have been killed by the deadly virus to eight. He had worked at Connaught hospital in Freetown, the capital of the country where Ebola is spreading fastest.

Ebola has now infected more than 17,500 people, mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, and killed about 6,200. He was the 11th doctor in Sierra Leone to have been infected with the virus.

The clinic, which opened in early November, included an 80-bed treatment centre managed by Save the Children and a 12-bed centre staffed by British Army medics specifically for healthcare workers and international staff responding to the Ebola crisis.

The high number of infections in healthworkers deters many from volunteering to work on Ebola wards, particularly local healthworkers. While foreign doctors and nurses who have become infected have been evacuated for treatment at better-equipped foreign hospitals, locals are almost always treated in their own countries. Facilities such as the one at Kerry Town have been set up in an attempt to response to that disparity. Another has been established in Liberia and another is planned for Guinea.

A Cuban doctor being treated for Ebola at Geneva University Hospital has made a full recovery and left Switzerland to be reunited with his family, the hospital said on Saturday.

Felix Baez Sarria, 43, was evacuated from Sierra Leone on 19 November after coming down with a fever. He was believed to have contracted the virus after rushing to help a patient who was falling over. Sarria was one of 256 Cuban doctors and nurses who have travelled to west Africa to help tackle the worst outbreak of the disease.

Ebola is spread through the bodily fluids of people showing symptoms and people who have died of the disease. Because transmission requires close contact with those fluids, health workers are among the most at risk of contracting it and hundreds have become infected in this outbreak.

Meanwhile, a second wave of 25 doctors, nurses and other medical staff from across the UK are due to arrive in Sierra Leone on Saturday to join 30 NHS volunteers who travelled there last month. They had five days of intensive training in Worcestershire before departing and will undergo further training and acclimatisation before starting work at the British-built treatment centres.

Staff nurse Hannah McReynolds, from Leicester, said she felt privileged to be part of the team. “As soon as I heard NHS staff were volunteering I didn’t hesitate to apply. I feel lucky to have been born into a society which has provided me with free education and healthcare. This is a global issue and I am proud of my colleagues who have volunteered and want to encourage others to do so.”

Health secretary Jeremy Hunt paid tribute to the NHS volunteers: “They embody the values at the heart of our health service, and their expertise and dedication is second to none.”

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/dec/06/doctor-treated-british-run-ebola-clinic-sierra-leone-dies