Aniru Conteh

Medical career Conteh spent his professional career working with people with Lassa fever, a viral hemorrhagic fever endemic to West Africa. Lassa fever was first brought to the attention of the public in 1969 during an outbreak in Nigeria. Identified in 1972, the disease is known to spread through its host, the Natal multimammate mouse (Mastomys natalensis), and infects an estimated 300,000 people and results in 5000 deaths annually in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea. In 1976, a hospital-acquired infection outbreak in the Panguma Catholic Hospital attracted attention in the United States. In response, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) established research programs in Segbwema, Kenema, and Panguma to study the disease.

Nixon Methodist Hospital

In 1979, Conteh began working with the CDC and team leader Joseph B. McCormick at the Nixon Methodist Hospital in Segbwema. Conteh became Medical Superintendent of the hospital in 1980. The Sierra Leone Civil War broke out in 1991, forcing the CDC to close their program and move to Guinea. The hospital was destroyed in the conflict and the spread of Lassa fever grew worse. During the civil war, the Natal multimammate mouse infested abandoned houses, increasing the likelihood of infection.

Kenema Government Hospital Conteh now found himself in the middle of a war zone, starving and homeless. He wandered about for several months and finally came to Kenema where he began treating the sick in the midst of the fighting. Although he had friends overseas, and could have procured a job outside Sierra Leone, he chose to stay and help his people because "they had no one to help them". Rebels from the Revolutionary United Front took over the town of Kenema in 1997 and 1999, but Conteh never left his post. It is thought that the rebels spared the hospital from destruction because they were afraid of catching Lassa fever.

Contributions to medicine

During the civil war, Conteh was the only clinician in Sierra Leone who had the skills and qualifications to manage patients with Lassa fever. In the absence of the CDC, the Lassa ward was supported by Merlin, a medical relief agency based in the UK. According to Nicholas Mellor, co-founder of Merlin, "Conteh worked with Merlin to get a new laboratory built that would enable collaboration with international research centres with an interest in haemorrhagic diseases. He also worked on training and Lassa fever awareness campaigns." Conteh's Lassa fever program "provided the blueprint for many experts". In 1996, Daniel Bausch at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine began working with Conteh and the CDC on research related to Lassa fever. In 2001, Conteh travelled to London, England to attend an international conference on Lassa fever where he presented a paper on managing the disease. Conteh returned to London in September 2003 to receive the "Spirit of Merlin" award for his outstanding role in "saving lives and alleviating suffering".

Death The Lassa ward was short-staffed, and Conteh would often draw blood from people himself. On 17 March 2004,

Conteh's funeral was held in the town of Daru. He played a key role in helping Merlin implement a program to support the Lassa ward and fever control measures in Sierra Leone. Because of his skill and dedication, deaths due to cases of suspected Lassa fever declined by 20%. After Conteh's death, Merlin and the peacekeepers in the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) left Sierra Leone and the Lassa ward in Kenema was barely functioning. In 2004, Tulane University, in co-ordination with the World Health Organization, began monitoring Lassa fever patients in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Guinea through the Mano River Union Lassa Fever Network (MRU-LFN). Today, the Lassa Fever Program is fully operational at Kenema Government Hospital, and focuses on "treatment, containment, prevention and research".

Publications Appearance in documentary film.