The study, by the US National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, examined 82 survivors in Liberia and found that most had some form of “neurologic abnormality” at least six months after they became infected.
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Some Ebola survivors develop vision and hearing problems as well as joint pain months after treatment, suggesting the virus lingers in some body fluids, research shows.
Two of the individuals complained of experiencing suicidal ideation (propensity towards thinking about how to kill oneself), while 21 reported having had hallucinations. Examinations indicated patients experienced tremors, as well as abnormal eye movements and reflexes.
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Norman, MD, MHS, MBA, senior vice president and chief medical officer at the University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City, discusses the possible Ebola survivor syndrome and the questions it raises about the virus’s persistence.
Ebola survivors might suffer from brain problems, such as headaches and depression.
Pauline Cafferkey has been admitted to London’s Royal Free Hospital “due to a late complication from her previous infection by the Ebola virus”, the hospital said Tuesday.
World Health Organization spokeswoman Fadela Chaib said Ebola survivors need “comprehensive support” to minimize the risk of further spread, especially via sexual transmission – which has been blamed for some recent flare-ups of Ebola in West Africa.
Even so, they still raise concerns about the far-reaching repercussions that an Ebola infection has on the physical and mental well-being of the individuals who have battled this disease.
NIAID researchers presented findings of the PREVAIL III study at the Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, according to an NIAID news release.
More than 28,600 people were infected with the virus in West Africa during the outbreak, and 11,300 of those people died, Bowen said. “When people had memory loss, it tended to affect their daily living, with some feeling they couldn’t return to school or normal jobs, some had awful sleeping problems”, she said.”Ebola hasn’t gone away for these people”.
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“This is the original Ebola virus that she had many months ago which has been inside the brain, replicating at a very low level probably, and which has now re-emerged to cause this clinical illness of meningitis”, Jacobs said past year about the October complication. The long-term effects of Ebola are still little known to the scientific community. She was diagnosed with meningitis, triggered by the Ebola virus lingering in her nervous system.
