– Reportedly in stable condition.
A Cuban doctor in Sierra Leone, became the latest health worker to have contracted the Ebola virus while attending to the infected patients in West Africa. Felix Baez Sarria, one of about 165 Cuban medics in Sierra Leone, is currently being treated in a Red Cross centre near Freetown. This was confirmed by doctors close to Sarria working in the same region.
The Cuban health ministry said Sarria, 43, was being treated by British doctors and is not in a critical condition. They also stressed that the most important thing is to get him to Geneva as soon as possible. Cuba has played a major role in intensifying global efforts to fight the outbreak in the three worst-hit countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea, sending around 250 nurses and doctors to the region with a total of 450 in the pipeline.
According to WHO figures, a total of 570 healthcare workers are known to have contracted the virus, and 324 have died as a result. The three countries at the epicenter of the outbreak are among the world’s poorest nations, with sketchy healthcare and infrastructure facilities that were ravaged by years of inter-linked civil conflicts. The lack of toilets in the region was also highlighted by the United Nations as a possible cause for the spread of the highly contagious disease.
Extracted and modified from Yahoo News.
