 Aniru Sahib Sahib Conteh ( 6 August 1942 – 4 April 2004 ) was a Sierra Leonean physician and expert on the clinical treatment of Lassa fever , a viral haemorrhagic fever endemic to West Africa caused by the Lassa virus . Conteh studied medicine at the University of Ibadan in Nigeria and taught at Ibadan Teaching Hospital . He later returned to Sierra Leone where he joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ) Lassa fever program at Nixon Methodist Hospital in Segbwema , first as superintendent and then as clinical director . 
