Ebola survivors may face devastating long-term after effects

A new study has revealed that "post-Ebola syndrome" may persist even after the virus is cured.

Margaret Nanyonga, a psycho-social support officer for WHO, said that they are seeing a lot of people with vision problems, where some complain of clouded vision, but for others the visual loss is progressive, ABC News reported.

Nanyonga, who has seen two people who are now blind, added that nearly 50 percent of Ebola survivors she has treated in Kenema, Sierra Leone's third-largest city, report declining health after fighting off the deadly virus, said.

She continued that the symptoms experienced by survivors in previous outbreaks are deteriorating vision, body aches, chest pain, headaches and fatigue.

William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert who was not aware of a post-Ebola syndrome but was not surprised that health of West African Ebola survivors deteriorates after recovery, said that people can imagine when people recover from Ebola there will be a period of time when they are fatigued, particularly if they have led a rough existence of poverty and poor nutrition.

Nanyonga, who had developed an assessment tool to track these symptoms, said that the researchers need to understand why they persist and whether they are caused by the disease, treatment or the heavy disinfection.