Ebola outbreak: UN medical team member dies in Germany - Action News
Home WebMail Wednesday, November 13, 2024, 06:55 AM | Calgary | -0.3°C | Regions Advertise Login | Our platform is in maintenance mode. Some URLs may not be available. |
World

Ebola outbreak: UN medical team member dies in Germany

A German hospital says an international member of the United Nations' medical team who was infected with Ebola in Liberia has died despite "intensive medical procedures."

56-year-old man admitted at Leipzig hospital last week

A fire brigade's special ambulance for transporting patients with highly infectious diseases arrives with an Ebola patient at the University Hospital Frankfurt on Oct. 3, one of three admissions in Germany for Ebola patients. The latest to be admitted died overnight Monday in Leipzig. (Ralph Orlowski/Reuters)

A United Nations medical worker who was infected with Ebola in Liberia has died despite "intensive medical procedures," a German hospital said Tuesday.

The St. Georg hospital in Leipzig said the 56-year-old man, whose name has not been released, died overnight of the infection. It released no further details and did not answer telephone calls.

The man tested positive for Ebola on Oct. 6, prompting Liberia's UN peacekeeping mission to place 41 staff members who had possibly been in contact with him under "close medical observation."

He arrived in Leipzig for treatment on Oct. 9. The hospital's chief executive, Dr. Iris Minde, said at the time that there was no risk of infection for other patients, relatives, visitors or the public.

The man was kept in a secure isolation ward specially equipped with negative pressure rooms that are hermetically sealed and can only be accessed through a number of airlocks. All air and fluids are filtered and all equipment is decontaminated after use, Minde said.

The Ebola patient was the third to be flown to Germany for treatment.

The first, a Senegalese man infected with Ebola while working for the World Health Organization in Sierra Leone was brought to a Hamburg hospital in late August for treatment. The man was released Oct. 3 after recovering and returned to his home country, the hospital said.

Another patient, a Ugandan man who worked for an Italian aid group in West Africa, is undergoing treatment in a Frankfurt hospital.