GMANetwork: As the Ebola epidemic retreats across West Africa, international health authorities are turning their attention to the little understood long-term effects of the often-deadly virus on the survivors.
There is little research on patients cured of the tropical fever, but the World Health Organization (WHO) has acknowledged that many are experiencing crippling complications long after walking out of treatment units.
Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO’s new head in Africa, told AFP that Liberian survivors had been reporting a range of problems, including sight and hearing impairment.
“We need to be aware that (complications) may be occurring and pay attention when people are being treated in case there is something that can be done to help them,” she told AFP in the Liberian capital Monrovia.
Moeti said the UN agency had initially focused on keeping people alive in its battle against the worst ever outbreak of the virus, which it says has left almost 11,000 people dead in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone.
“So we are very much learning about this,” Moeti told AFP.
Can’t find the link, but Japan News had this same piece and the comments were hair-raising. Lots of med professionals blaming the uber drugs like Cipro, which they say damages DNA replication. They also called out the drug companies for dumping bacteria-fighting Cipro-type drugs to fight a virus.
Japan Times scrubbed their article.
“Sight and hearing impairments”? Looks like the lame-stream media have a new source for crack reporters.