IT’S the virus that doesn’t quit. British nurse Pauline Cafferkey caught Ebola while working in West Africa last December. She survived, but this week is in a “serious” condition in an isolation ward in London, after experiencing renewed symptoms.
She sought medical help on 7 October but wasn’t isolated until three days later. She had initially been diagnosed with “a virus” and sent home, despite her history. Now 58 close, recent contacts, including medical staff where she was first examined, are under surveillance. Some have received an experimental Ebola vaccine.
Cafferkey isn’t alone. More than half the 13,000 Ebola survivors in West Africa are thought to be experiencing . These symptoms have been reported after other viral infections.
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But other symptoms, such as eye problems, seem specific to Ebola. That’s because the virus can survive in organs that are sheltered from the immune system, such as eyes and testes, even if someone seems cured of the disease.
So far, a quarter of people who survived the West African epidemic have developed severe eye problems, including an American doctor. US medical agencies are now in Liberia for a study into what causes post-Ebola syndrome, and whether the lurking virus can infect others.
(Image: Ken McKay/ITV/REX Shutterstock)
This article appeared in print under the headline “Ebola survivor seriously ill again”
