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Fifth doctor in Sierra Leone dies of Ebola Fifth doctor in Sierra Leone dies of Ebola
(about 4 hours later)
A doctor in Sierra Leone has died of Ebola, the fifth local doctor in the west African nation to die of the disease.A doctor in Sierra Leone has died of Ebola, the fifth local doctor in the west African nation to die of the disease.
Godfrey George, medical superintendent of Kambia government hospital in northern Sierra Leone, died on Sunday night, according to Sierra Leone’s government.Godfrey George, medical superintendent of Kambia government hospital in northern Sierra Leone, died on Sunday night, according to Sierra Leone’s government.
George’s death, which was announced by Dr Brima Kargbo, Sierra Leone’s chief medical officer, is a blow to efforts to keep desperately needed health workers safe in a country ravaged by the deadly virus.George’s death, which was announced by Dr Brima Kargbo, Sierra Leone’s chief medical officer, is a blow to efforts to keep desperately needed health workers safe in a country ravaged by the deadly virus.
George had been driven to the capital, Freetown, after reporting that he was not feeling well. Doctors and nurses have been particularly vulnerable to contracting Ebola, as the virus is spread through body fluids.UN chief Ban Ki-moon warned on Monday against “unnecessarily” strict restrictions on health workers returning from treating Ebola patients, in an apparent reference to quarantines and visa bans by some Western nations.
Doctors and nurses have been particularly vulnerable to contracting Ebola, as the virus is spread through body fluids. “There are some unnecessarily extra restrictions and discriminations against health workers. These people are … risking their own lives,” Ban said. These “unnecessarily strong and strict restrictions” included “quarantine for health workers … not based on science and medical evidence”.
Ebola is high on the agenda for a regional meeting of the World Health Organisation that began on Monday in Benin, a west African nation that has not registered any Ebola cases. WHO’s director general, Margaret Chan, said the Ebola epidemic has set back political stability and economic recovery in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia. “That is my honest and urgent opinion to the international community,” he said, stressing however that people with Ebola symptoms “should be immediately treated and supported”.
Experts say quarantining medical professionals who have shown no symptoms of the virus is counter-productive and could deter other workers from helping contain west Africa’s Ebola crisis.
A senior health official in China said on Monday that medical staff who work with Ebola patients in west Africa will be quarantined for 21 days after they return from duty.
Doctors returning to China will be subjected to a battery of tests before they enter the observation period, said He Qinghua, deputy director of the Ministry of Health’s Bureau for Disease Control and Prevention.
“As these doctors are responsible for the testing of the virus, on their return to China they will be put under a 21 day quarantine period to be supervised by local community service centres,” he said.
In the US, the state of Maine and a nurse who had treated victims of the Ebola virus in west Africa reached a settlement on Monday allowing her to travel freely in public but requiring her to monitor her health closely and report any symptoms.
Ebola is high on the agenda for a regional meeting of the World Health Organisation that began on Monday in Benin, a west African nation that has not registered any Ebola cases. WHO’s director general, Margaret Chan, said the Ebola epidemic had set back political stability and economic recovery in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia.