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 Victor Willoughby was diagnosed with Ebola last week after he
treated a man with organ-related problems. The patient, a senior
banker, was later diagnosed with Ebola and has since died.
The drug, ZMab, was transported in frozen form on a Brussels
Airlines flight that arrived overnight. Before it could thaw,
Willoughby's condition deteriorated, said chief medical officer
Brima Kargbo.
His death brings to 12 the number of Sierra Leone doctors to have
contracted the virus. Eleven have died. In all, 142 health workers
have been infected with the disease in the West African country and
109 have died, according to World Health Organization figures.
Sierra Leone, neighboring Guinea and Liberia are at the heart of the
world's worst recorded outbreak of Ebola. Rates of infection are
rising fastest in Sierra Leone, which now accounts for more than
half of the 18,603 confirmed cases of the virus.
The overall death toll from the epidemic has risen to 6,915 as of
Dec. 14, the WHO said on Wednesday, adding that the increase in
cases in Sierra Leone appeared to have slowed.
Kargbo said Willoughby's death was one of the most tragic to hit the
country since the passing, in July, of its only virologist and Ebola
specialist, Dr Shek Humar Khan.
"We all looked up to Dr Willoughby and would consult him on many
issues relating to our medical profession," Kargbo said.
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Ebola centers in Sierra Leone overflowed on Wednesday as health
workers combed the streets of the capital Freetown for patients,
after the government launched a major operation to contain the
epidemic.
Dr M'Baimba Baryoh, a surgeon at Connaught hospital Freetown who
described Dr Willoughby as a "very good friend", said Sierra Leone
had desperate need of more foreign healthcare workers as local staff
were overstretched.
"We've lost personal friends and colleagues we've worked with. It's
extremely depressing and frustrating. You can talk to someone today
and tomorrow they are Ebola-infected," he said.
"The tension, the depression, it's a lot of pressure. You start
having nightmares because of Ebola."
(Reporting by Umaru Fofana and Emma Farge; Editing by Matthew Mpoke
Bigg and Andrew Roche)
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