Global Health experts have warned that West Africans who were infected with the Ebola virus but survived it are suffering chronic conditions such as serious joint pain and eye inflammation that can lead to blindness.
A World Health Organisation representative, Anders Nordstrom made this revelation during a five-day conference about Ebola Survivors.
“The world has never seen such a large number of survivors from an Ebola outbreak.We have 13,000 survivors in the three countries (Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone). This is new – both from a medical and from a societal point of view,” he told Reuters.
Daniel Bausch of the WHO’s clinical care team on Ebola survivors also added that 25 per cent of the survivors have eye problems including inflammation, impaired vision and in severe but rare cases blindness.