 After the Sierra Leone Civil War began in 1991 , the CDC closed their program in Segbwema . Conteh and his medical team moved from Segbwema to the Kenema Government Hospital ( KGH ) , where he spent the next two decades running the only dedicated Lassa fever ward in the world . Conteh collaborated with the British charity Merlin to promote public health in Sierra Leone through education and awareness campaigns intended to prevent Lassa fever . With little funding and few supplies , Conteh successfully reduced mortality rates and saved many lives until an accidental needlestick injury led to his own death from the disease in 2004 . 
