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About 50% of West African Ebola Survivors Are Facing Chronic Illness: WHO

by Reshma Anand on Aug 10 2015 3:24 PM

About 50% of West African Ebola Survivors Are Facing Chronic Illness: WHO
West Africans who survived Ebola are now facing chronic conditions like joint pain and eye inflammation that can lead to blindness, said the World Health Organization.
More than 13,000 survivors in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone who fought off the most severe cases of the infection are more likely to suffer from the ongoing medical issues.

About 50 percent of survivors experience joint pain, and 25 percent have reported eye problems like inflammation, impaired vision, and even blindness. Survivors also face increasing rates of depression, PTSD, and social exclusion.

Experts reported that the vision impairments among Ebola survivors may be due to the persistence of the virus in their eyes.

As the virus has been found in Africa since 1976, experts are not able to say whether the chronic conditions being reported are out of the ordinary.

The recent outbreak of the disease was first reported in December 2013 and has affected more than 27,860 people in the African countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Of them about 11,281 died, the WHO stated.

Source-Medindia


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