Ebola survivors still haunted by the virus

She is only 12 years old when the Ebola virus crossed her path. After fifteen days in a treatment center, the girl succeeds in gaining the upper hand and beats the disease. But this terrible virus had not said its last word. More than a year after infection, the Sierra Leonean no longer sees, hears very badly and suffers from severe cognitive impairment. Autonomous before the Ebola outbreak, it now needs help 24 hours a day.

This tragic story is told by British and Sierra Leonean doctors in the latest issue of the scientific journal Emerging Infectious Diseases . The girl is one of 360 Ebola survivors who are regularly followed by doctors in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone. In this West African country, some 10,000 women, men and children have survived the 2013-2016 epidemic. And hundreds of them are still marked by this appalling infection. "We knew that a pathology as serious as Ebola could leave such a legacy for survivors. But I was stunned by seeing previously active youth and adults unable to move, talk or carry their children, "said Dr. Janet Scott, head of the Post Ebola Syndrome Project at the University of Liverpool and author of this study.

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For their work, the researchers focused on the 40 patients in the cohort with severe neurological impairment or psychiatric decompensation one year after leaving the treatment center. The majority of them presented migraines or headaches of violent tension. Neurological examinations also showed that two survivors suffered a stroke while being treated in a treatment center. An event they had not recovered a year after they returned home. In addition, half of the participants suffer from eye pain or visual loss. The exact causes of these disorders are still poorly understood

Depression and Anxiety Disorders

Mental health disorders are also very common. One after the acute phase of infection, a dozen survivors present a depressive syndrome and a dozen other anxiety disorders. Stigma, grief and loss of employment are the main reasons given by these patients to explain their malaise. "These neurological and psychiatric manifestations can be related to the virus itself which persists in the organism or result from the experience of imminent death experienced by the survivors in the treatment centers", explains to Figaro the Pr Eric Delaporte, Director of the Operational Research Team on HIV and Infectious Diseases at the Institute for Research for Development (IRD) who did not participate in this study. Present in Guinea during the epidemic, he devotes part of his work to life after Ebola.

In the forest region of Guinea, the epicenter of the 2013 epidemic in Conakry and its suburbs, Pr Delaporte's teams have been following more than 800 survivors since 2015. "Three out of four patients have non-existent sequelae. negligible when leaving treatment centers. With time, their condition improves. But we see that 40% of them still suffer from joint pain, eye pain and have a depressive syndrome. It is necessary to put in place programs to take care of them ", describes the specialist.

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But as the stress the authors of these works, access to a neurologist or psychiatrist in these countries of West Africa is a real obstacle course. In Guinea, for example, there are only 10 neurologists for 12 million inhabitants. "The need for training of health professionals who can care for these survivors is urgently needed," says Dr. Patrick Howlett of King's College London who conducted the study.