A local resident awaits the landing of a British Navy helicopter as it drops food aid on Sherbro Island, Sierra Leone, Sunday, Dec. 7, 2014. The WFP, World Food Program and British Military took part in a three day food distribution effort to local residents on the remote Sherbro Island, where the amount of sick people due to the Ebola virus have prevented people from farming, fishing or gathering there own food. (AP Photo/Michael Duff)
December 07, 2014 - 6:09 AM
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone - A health official says another Sierra Leonean doctor has died from Ebola, the 10th to succumb to the disease.
Chief Medical Officer Dr. Brima Kargbo confirmed Sunday that Dr. Aiah Solomon Konoyeima died a day earlier. His death came a day after two other doctors died from Ebola, emphasizing the terrible toll the disease has taken on health care workers.
Konoyeima worked at a children's hospital in the capital and tested positive for Ebola about two weeks ago.
Because Ebola is transmitted through the bodily fluids of the sick and dead, it is sometimes called the "caretakers' disease." Hundreds of health workers have been infected in this outbreak.
In the current outbreak, Ebola has sickened more than 17,500 people, mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. About 6,200 have died.
News from © The Associated Press, 2014