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Has anybody survived the ebola virus?

By Anonymous August 3, 2014 - 10:54pm
 
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ebola virus

Hearing that 90% of people who get the virus die. What are the characteristic of people who have survived the virus? Where they treated outside Africa?

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Guide

Hello Anonymous,

Thank you for your very timely question. Currently, all eyes are on Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, where Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol are being treated for the ebola virus. Both have received an experimental drug.

Dr. Tom Cairns is the first non-African to survive ebola. Cairns was in Zaire in 1972. He was a missionary doctor performing an autopsy on a patient who died before they could diagnose him. He contracted ebola before it was named.

The ebola virus is one of the world's dealiest, generally killing 90% of its victims.

For people who survive, recovery is slow. It may take months to regain weight and strength, and the viruses remain in the body for weeks. People may experience:

Hair loss
Sensory changes
Liver inflammation (hepatitis)
Weakness
Fatigue
Headaches
Eye inflammation
Testicular inflammation

To my knowledge, individuals infected with the virus have been treated in their native African countries or transported to the United States.

Regards,
Maryann

August 5, 2014 - 8:50am
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