Sheik Umar Khan (6 March 1975 – 29 July 2014) was the chief Sierra Leonean doctor attempting to curb the country's Ebola outbreak in 2014.[3]
The virologist is credited with treating over a hundred patients before succumbing to the virus himself. He was recognized as a "national hero" by Sierra Leone's Health Ministry.[4] Khan had long worked with Lassa fever, a disease that kills over 5,000 a year in Africa. He had expanded his clinic to accept Ebola patients. Sierra Leone's president, Ernest Bai Koroma, celebrated Khan as a "national hero".[5] He had a habit of hugging the cured Ebola patients that were leaving his ward, to lift their spirits.[6]
Khan made contact with the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in 2010 when he came to Ghana to do his Residency. He was offered admission into the Ghana College of Physicians and Surgeons to undertake a 3-year residency training programme in internal medicine. As part of the training, he was posted to the Department of Medicine of the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital.[citation needed]
Death
Khan was very meticulous in donning personal protective equipment as he treated patients.[7] Believing the virus unable to be transmitted in an airborne fashion, he worked fearlessly with Ebola virus patients.[8] Despite observing recommended protocols, Khan was infected by the virus and died on 29 July 2014 in a facility run by Medecins Sans Frontieres.[9] He was not offered a dose of the experimental drug ZMapp though one was available.[10] Sierra Leonean president Ernest Bai Koroma had been due to visit his treatment center the following week.[11]
^"Interview: Sierra Leone's Ebola doctor feared for his life". Archived from the original on 20 October 2014. Indeed yes, they no longer have Ebola and in fact as a matter of fact these are people I embrace myself on the day of discharge because don't forget the stigma about Ebola with some people you have to give them certificates so that by the time they return to their villages people will understand that they are no more suffering from the disease and they are free to interact with the population.
^"Interview: Sierra Leone's Ebola doctor feared for his life". Archived from the original on 20 October 2014. I make sure whenever I am going into the isolation unit I am in my full protective clothing, and I make sure my nurses are all in theirs" he said to me. "I even have a mirror in my office
