Sheik Umar Khan (6 March 1975 – 29 July 2014) was the chief

Sierra Leone Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierr ...

an doctor attempting to curb the country's 2014 West Africa Ebola outbreak, Ebola outbreak in 2014. The

virologist Virology is the scientific study of biological viruses. It is a subfield of microbiology that focuses on their detection, structure, classification and evolution, their methods of infection and exploitation of host cells for reproduction, thei ...

is credited with treating over a hundred patients before succumbing to the virus himself. He was recognized as a "national hero" by

's Health Ministry. Khan had long worked with

Lassa fever Lassa fever, also known as Lassa hemorrhagic fever (LHF), is a type of viral hemorrhagic fever caused by the Lassa virus. Many of those infected by the virus do not develop symptoms. When symptoms occur they typically include fever, weakness, ...

, 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 Ernest Bai Koroma (born 2 October 1953) is a Sierra Leonean politician who served as the fourth President of Sierra Leone from 17 September 2007 to 4 April 2018. Born and raised in Makeni in northern Sierra Leone, Koroma spent more than 24 ...

, 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 Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital (KBTH) is a public teaching hospital located in the Ablekuma South Metropolitan District in Accra, Ghana. It is the only public tertiary hospital in the southern part of the country. It is a teaching hospital affiliate ...

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.

Death

Khan was very meticulous in donning

personal protective equipment Personal protective equipment (PPE) is protective clothing, helmets, goggles, or other garments or equipment designed to protect the wearer's body from injury or infection. The hazards addressed by protective equipment include physical, e ...

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 ZMapp is an experimental biopharmaceutical drug comprising three chimeric monoclonal antibodies under development as a treatment for Ebola virus disease. Two of the three components were originally developed at the Public Health Agency of Canada ...

though one was available. Sierra Leonean president

had been due to visit his treatment center the following week.

Awards and honors

* On 18 December 2014, Khan was named one of Nature's 10 "people who mattered" of 2014, along with

Maryam Mirzakhani Maryam Mirzakhani ( fa, مریم میرزاخانی, ; 12 May 1977 – 14 July 2017) was an Iranian mathematician and a professor of mathematics at Stanford University. Her research topics included Teichmüller theory, hyperbolic geometry, ...

Radhika Nagpal Radhika Nagpal is an American computer scientist and researcher in the fields of self-organising computer systems, biologically-inspired robotics, and biological multi-agent systems. She is the Fred Kavli Professor of Computer Science at Harvar ...

, and others. * In 2019, asteroid 6781 Sheikhumarrkhan, discovered by American astronomer

Henry E. Holt Henry E. Holt (27 September 1929 - 5 May 2019) was an American astronomer and prolific discoverer of minor planets and comets, who has worked as a planetary geologist at the United States Geological Survey and Northern Arizona University. Car ...

at Palomar Observatory in 1990, was named in his memory. The official was published by the Minor Planet Center on 27 August 2019 () and revised on 25 March 2021 ().

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Khan, Sheik Umar 2014 deaths 1975 births Sierra Leonean virologists Deaths from Ebola