Chief Ebola doctor overseeing cases in Sierre Leone contracts the virus

 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. Sheik Humarr Khan is being treated by the French aid group Medicins Sans Frontieres -- also known as Doctors Without Borders -- at a hospital in the capital city of Freetown, Tim Shenk, an agency spokesman, told CNN on Wednesday.

Until falling ill, Khan had been overseeing Ebola treatment and isolation units at Kenema Government Hospital, about 185 miles east of Freetown.

Citing patient confidentiality, Shenk declined to provide additional details about Khan's condition.
The Ministry of Health took to Facebook to deny
reports the doctor had died. The ministry "wishes the general public and all partners working in the healthcare sector to know that Dr. (Shiek) Umar Khan is still alive and responding to treatment contrary to social media report of his demise," according to a Facebook post. Sanjay Gupta: 'It only took moments' Sierra Leone has had 427 confirmed cases of Ebola and 144 deaths, according to figures
released Wednesday by the health ministry.

That puts it, along with Guinea, at the center of
an outbreak of the virus that has steadily spread through western Africa since it began earlier this year. More than 1,000 people have contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, according to the World Health Organization. Ebola typically kills 90% of those infected, but the death rate in this outbreak has dropped to roughly 60% thanks to early treatment.