EBOLA VIRUS - Fourth doctor dies in Sierra Leone

Fourth doctor dies in Sierra Leone

• AP in Freetown
• The Guardian, Sunday 14 September 2014 17.50 BST

Health workers screen people for Ebola at Kenema hospital in Sierra Leone. Photograph: Michael Duff/AP

Sierra Leone has lost a fourth doctor to Ebola after efforts to

transfer her abroad for treatment failed, a government official

said Sunday.

The death is a huge setback to the impoverished country, which is battling the virulent disease amid a shortage of healthcare workers.

Dr Olivet Buck died late Saturday, hours after the World Health Organisation (WHO) said it could not help medically evacuate her to Germany, Sierra Leone's chief medical officer Dr Brima Kargbo confirmed to the Associated Press.

Sierra Leone had requested funds from WHO to transport Buck to Europe, saying the country could not afford to lose another doctor. WHO said it could not meet the request but instead would work to give Buck "the best care possible" in Sierra Leone, including possible access to experimental drugs.

Ebola is spread through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected patients, making doctors and nurses especially vulnerable to contracting the virus, which has no vaccine or approved treatment.

More than 300 health workers have become infected with Ebola in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Nearly half of them have died, according to WHO.

The infections have exacerbated shortages of doctors and nurses in west African countries that were already low on skilled health personnel.

So far, only foreign health and aid workers have been evacuated abroad from Sierra Leone and Liberia for treatment.

Dr Sheik Humarr Khan, Sierra Leone's top Ebola doctor, was being considered for evacuation to Europe when he died of the disease in late July.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/