Nearly 80 percent of individuals who survived the Ebola virus displayed significant limitations in mobility, cognition or vision a year after being discharged, according to a study published in Clinical Infectious Diseases.
For the study, 27 Ebola survivors filled out a disability questionnaire 12 months after they were discharged from an Ebola survivor's clinic in Freetown, Sierra Leone. Fifty-four close contacts of the survivors who were unaffected by the virus also responded to the questionnaire.
The questionnaire assessed six different domains of potential disability: cognition, communication, hearing, mobility, self-care and vision. Disability was identified in 77.8 percent of survivors and only 11.1 percent of the unaffected contacts. Survivors were eight times more likely to suffer from blurred vision and 206 times more likely to report difficulties walking.
"This study highlights that [Ebola virus disease] results in long-term substantial disability," said Janet Scott, PhD, clinical lecturer at University of Liverpool in England and one of the study's authors. "Understanding post Ebola syndrome could improve our future care of EVD patients and patients suffering the sequelae of other severe viral infections."
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