Nisha Rathode (Editor)

Sheik Umar Khan

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Education
  
Trained at Korle Bu

Role
  
Doctor

Name
  
Sheik Khan


Profession
  
Chief Medical Officer

Known for
  
Ebola isolation ward

Died
  
July 29, 2014

Sheik Umar Khan ichef1bbcicouknews660mediaimages76625000

Born
  
6 March 1975 (
1975-03-06
)

Research
  
Lassa fever, Ebola virus disease

Tribute to dr sheik umar khan


Doctor 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.

Contents

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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. 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". He had a habit of hugging the cured Ebola patients that were leaving his ward, to lift their spirits.

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.

Thank you Dr. Sheik Umar Khan


Death

Khan was very meticulous in donning personal protective equipment as he treated patients. Believing the virus unable to be transmitted in an airborne fashion, he worked fearlessly with Ebola virus patients. Despite observing recommended protocols, Khan was infected by the virus and died on 29 July 2014 in a facility run by Medecins Sans Frontieres. He was not offered a dose of the experimental drug ZMapp though one was available. Sierra Leonean president Ernest Bai Koroma had been due to visit his treatment center the following week.

Awards and honors

On December 18, 2014, Khan was named one of Nature's 10 "people who mattered" of 2014, along with Maryam Mirzakhani, Radhika Nagpal, and others.

References

Sheik Umar Khan Wikipedia