African Food and Art

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Get to Know the Victims of the Ebola Outbreak

Ebola victim Dr. Sheik Humarr Khan was a leader who died unselfishly battling the Ebola outbreak in Africa.

Get to Know the Victims of the Ebola Outbreak

humarr-khan
Dr. Sheik Humarr Khan 

"Dr. Khan was an extremely determined and courageous doctor who cared deeply for his patients," Doctors Without Borders said in a statement. 

Ebola usually kills 90% of those infected by the disease, but the death rate in the Ebola outbreak in the African countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone has dropped to approximately 60% because of early treatment thanks to dedicated doctors like the late Dr. Sheik Humarr Khan. 

Dr. Sheik Humarr Khan studied at the College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences (COMAHS), University of Sierra Leone (USL). He graduated with a Bachelors in Medicine and a Bachelors in Surgery (MBChB) in 2001. 

As a young Tropical Medicine/Infectious Disease Physician, Dr. Khan was recruited as a Medical Officer at the Directorate of Disease Prevention and Control, Ministry of Health and Sanitation (MOHS) where he served for almost two years until 2005. 

Dr. Khan was appointed by the MOHS as the Chief Physician to the Lassa Fever Program at the Kenema Government Hospital (KGH), Sierra Leone. Dr. Khan stepped into the shoes of his predecessor, the late Dr. Aniru Conteh who tragically died of Lassa fever. 

In his capacity as the Chief Physician of the Lassa Fever Program, KGH, Dr. Khan was concurrently contracted by then United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone as a contract physician and consultant for Lassa fever in Sierra Leone. 

From 2005 until 2010, Dr. Khan served as Physician In-charge of HIV/AIDS services at KGH, and from 2006-2010 as Physician Consultant for the Mano River Union Lassa Fever Network, WHO/Tulane University. From 2010 until 2013 Dr. Khan conducted residency training in Internal Medicine at the Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital, Accra, Ghana and was awarded an MWACP. 

Since completing his training, he has returned to his field of work as Physician In-Charge, Lassa Fever Program, KGH. In January 2014, Dr. Khan was appointed Associate Lecturer at the Department of Medicine, COMAHS, USL. 

He is one of the world’s leading experts in the clinical care of viral hemorrhagic fevers among them, Ebola. On Tuesday July 30, 2014 at Kenema Government Hospital, about 185 miles east of Sierra Leone's capital city, Freetown Dr. Khan died from the very disease he fought to find a remedy for his entire career.

Did you know? Ebola, previously known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever, is deadly disease caused by infection with one of the Ebola virus species.


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