FREETOWN (AFP) ― Two doctors have died on the same day after contracting Ebola in Sierra Leone, the government said Saturday, bringing to nine the number of medics killed by the virus.
They are among hundreds of health care workers to die treating patients infected in the deadly outbreak, which appears to be stabilising in Guinea and Liberia but is still spreading at an alarming rate in Sierra Leone.
“We lost two doctors in one day,” Health Ministry spokesman Jonathan Abass Kamara said, adding that Friday’s deaths had come as “a great shock to the ministry.”
“These were eminent professionals who were greatly involved in the fight against Ebola and their services will be greatly missed,” Kamara said.
It was not immediately clear how either had contracted the disease, or if they were involved directly in the treatment of Ebola patients.
Thomas Rogers, a surgeon at the Connaught Hospital, the main referral unit in the capital Freetown, was being treated at the British-run Kerry Town Ebola treatment centre a short drive from the city.
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