Ebola victims report after-effects

Medics treating survivors of Ebola are reporting numerous cases in which survivors are showing specific after-effects in the weeks and months after the infection. The symptoms now also have a name: Post-Ebola Syndrom (PES).

Some former Ebola patients are complaining about rising pressure and pain in their eyes, as well as problems with their vision. Some doctors have even reported cases of patients going blind.

Other after-effects include joint-pains, loss of hair and anxiety attacks. A Reuters reporter quotes women as saying that they have stopped menstruating after surviving the disease.

Uncertainty about the origins of PES

Some medics believe that the symptoms could point to a possible autoimmune response. This would mean that the immune system starts attacking healthy cells.

Margaret Nanyonga, a doctor who treated Ebola patients in Kenema, Sierra Leone, estimated that about half of those who recovered after an Ebola infection had declining health.

So far, there are no published studies about PES, nor is there a consensus among doctors about the origins of the syndrome. Another possible explanation is that Ebola triggered previous illnesses that were already present, but had not broken out yet.

Overall the number of people who had been infected in the latest epidemic has risen to 22,495. Of these patients, 8,981 did not survive the disease.

fs/cb (dpa, Reuters, afp)