, 2008, Bausch et al., 2010, Hadi et al., 2010, Shaffer et al., 2014, Schoepp et al., 2014 and Kouyoumdjian et al., 2010). Khan was known for his ever jovial manner. A lover of soccer, he and friends formed a soccer watching club,

meeting nightly at selleck chemicals the same spot in Kenema to watch the games, share a meal, and expound upon the virtues and short-comings of their favorite teams (Khan being an avid AC Milan fan). Always eager to advance his professional knowledge, Khan took a leave of absence from Kenema from 2010 to 2013 to undergo specialist training in internal medicine at the West African College of Physicians in Accra, Ghana. During this time he had another brush with a dangerous virus, receiving a needlestick while drawing blood from a patient with AIDS. Fortunately, he was able to quickly implement post-exposure chemoprophylaxis, which succeeded in preventing infection. The experience and specialist training in Ghana would normally qualify a physician to move up in the world, perhaps to a higher-profile and better paid position in the capital. Nevertheless, Khan never wavered in his intention to rejoin the clinical and research team in Kenema. When the Ebola epidemic arrived in Sierra Leone in May, he was at the heart of

the response – seeing patients, directing activities, constantly on the phone with government officials and countless others coordinating the Selleckchem ATM inhibitor control

efforts. With Ebola, he was again aware of the risks: “I am afraid for my life, I must say…Health workers are prone to the disease because we are the first port of call for somebody who is sickened by disease.” His sister Aissata echoed the concern: “I told him not to go in there [the EVD Treatment Center], but he said ‘If I refuse Cell press to treat them, who would treat me?’” Sadly, having dodged the bullets of Lassa virus and HIV, his luck ran out with Ebola. Khan is but one of many healthcare workers in Kenema who have sacrificed their lives in the fight against EVD. There is also nurse and midwife Mbalu Fonnie (Fig. 2), Chief Nurse of the Lassa Fever Ward, who died on July 21st, at age 57. Fonnie could rightly be considered the foundation of the Lassa fever program, having served since 1981. She was also a survivor of Lassa fever, having contracted the disease attending to a woman suffering a spontaneous abortion in the 1980s. Like many of the brave healthcare workers in Kenema, the experience only galvanized her will to serve others suffering from the disease, but as for Khan, Ebola proved too formidable a foe.