Chief Ebola Doctor Contracts Ebola

A doctor who has played a key role in fighting the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone is infected with the disease, according to that country's Ministry of Health. Dr: Shelk Humarr Khan is being treated by the French aid group Medecins Sans Frontieres - also known as Doctors Without Borders - in Kailahum, Sirra Leone, Tim Shenk, an agency spokesman, told CNN. Until falling ill, Khan had been overseeing Ebola treatment and isolation units at Kenema Government Hospital, about 185 miles east of the capital Freetown. Citing patient confidentiality, Shenk declined to provide additional details about Khan's condition.The Ministry of Health took to Facebook to deny reports te doctor had died. The minisry "wishes the general public and all partners working in the healthcare sector to know that, ...Khan is still alive and responding to treatment comtrary to social media report of his demise," according to a Facebok post. Sierra Leone has had 427 confirmed cases of Ebola and 144 deaths, according to figures released Wednes day by the health ministry. That puts it, along with Guinea, at the center of an outbreak of the virus that has steady spread though western African since it began earlier this year. More than 1,000 people have contracted Ebola in Slerra Leone, Guinea and Liberia Guinea and Liberia, according to the World Health Organization.