U.S. Ebola survivors deal with multiple health issues, including depression
|
Version 0 of 1. Survivors of infection by Ebola virus, already known to face vision, hearing and other problems during their recovery, may also be plagued with such health issues as depression, anxiety and nerve damage that surface after they leave the hospital, according to a small spot survey of victims whose care was managed in the United States. Some of the signs and symptoms can persist for months, researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found.c The data, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, offer a snapshot of what eight U.S. patients had experienced — and were continuing to experience — during their recovery. A ninth patient was still recovering in the hospital at the time of the March survey and was not included in the survey. As of early December, WHO had logged 17,300 Ebola survivors worldwide for the most recent outbreak, which began in 2013. In the case of the U.S. survivors, many aftereffects were obvious when the eight patients left the hospital. Two had short-term memory loss. One recovered after four weeks. The other had not recovered when surveyed. Six had joint pain, six had lethargy or fatigue, four had palpitations or tachycardia and three had shortness of breath. Most recovered. Some people were plagued with muscle pain, depression or anxiety, or nerve pain, burning or tingling in their extremities. But in some of the patients, the symptoms took as long as 12 weeks to appear. Recovery typically required another four to six weeks, but only one of the four patients who fell into the anxiety or depression category had experienced a total recovery. Five survivors had developed insomnia within two weeks of leaving the hospital, and only one had recovered completely. Five developed blurred vision, typically after four weeks, and two had not fully recovered. Two experienced inflammation in one eye. One patient had begun to experience it at the two-week mark; the other after eight weeks. Both recovered. Six had experienced temporary hair loss, usually on the head. The hair loss took anywhere from four to 16 weeks to appear and two to eight weeks to resolve. One person experienced hearing loss on one side and had not recovered. “Although most symptoms resolved or improved over time, only one survivor reported complete resolution of all symptoms,” the CDC team writes. |