Monrovia, March 22 (LINA) – A five-year study of Ebola survivors in Liberia, funded by the United States National Institute of Health (NIH), has found that the health of survivors of the virus improved during their first year of follow-up,, Health Minster Dr. Wilhelmina Jallah said on Thursday.
Notwithstanding, the minister said, certain health problems remain more common among survivors than their households and sexual contacts who never had the virus.
In June 2015, the Liberia-US Joint Clinical Research Partnership began the Ebola natural history study titled « PREVAIL 3 », comprising three goals such as: to learn about health problems Ebola survivors may have as a result of their Ebola virus disease; to learn how the body’s immune system responds to Ebola; and to learn whether pieces of the virus stay in the body, and if so, for how long.
Meanwhile, when Dr. Mosoka Fallah, the principal investigator at Partnership for Research on Ebola Virus in Liberia (PREVAIL), told a news conference at the Information Ministry that enrolment in the study ended in June 2017, and a total of 966 Ebola survivors with anti-Ebola antibodies, 2,350 uninfected households and sexual contacts of the survivors joined the study.
A full report of PREVAIL’s findings was published on March 7777 in the medical journal: The New England Journal of Medicine.
Although the study has not yet ended, Fallah said it was important at this point that PREVAIL shared what they found after the first year, in order to help Ebola survivors and caretakers better understand the health problems survivors may experience over time.
At enrolment, six health problems were reported more often by those in the ‘survivor’ group compared with those ‘close contact’ group, frequent urination, headache, fatigue, muscle pain, memory loss and joint pain, he said.
Dr. Fallah, who is also deputy director general of the National Public Health Institute of Liberia (NPHIL), further noted that a subgroup of 564 survivors and 635 close contacts that enrolled in the eye sub-study received eye examinations at the JFK hospital, adding that the Uveitis-inflammation that causes pain and redness and loss of vision was found in 26 percent of the survivors versus 12 percent of close contacts.
Dr. Fallah noted that, after one year, all the health problems and abnormal findings improved overall in the two groups, except the uveitis which increased in both groups.
Moreover, he noted that semen of male survivors were also tested during the study, and that fragments of Ebola virus ribonucleic acid (RNA) can persist in the semen of male survivors, showing a potential transmission risk to their sexual partners.
The research further showed that Ebola viral RNA in semen does not necessarily mean infectious virus exists in the semen, but cases of survivors transmitting Ebola virus to a sexual partners and causing Ebola disease is rare, and that more research was needed to understand the risk.
Nonetheless, he said the study is still ongoing and will continue to follow the health of the participants through five years in the hope of learning even more about Ebola virus disease and its after-effects.
In the meantime, authorities have lauded Ebola survivors and their close contacts « for the bold step taken to join the study which will inform policy decisions on how optimized treatment will provide in addressing the range of potential health problems as a result of Ebola. »
The epidemic broke out in Liberia in March 2014 and caused havoc amongst the population already confronted with a fragile health system, causing thousands of deaths in parts of the country mainly in the northeast where it first sparked, and in the capital, Monrovia, and its suburbs.
A total of 28,616 cases of EVD and 11,310 deaths were said to be reported in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
There were an additional 36 cases and 15 deaths that occurred when the outbreak spread outside of these three countries.
