By Umaru Fofana
A new report out this week says Ebola survivors “need continued access to healthcare” because they suffer from severe neurological and psychiatric problems.
The researchers from University of Liverpool and the Kings’ Sierra Leone Partnership call for “more specialist support for the most severely affected patients” and detail several disorders among Ebola survivors in Sierra Leone.
These disorders include stroke and debilitating migraine-type headaches.
“Some survivors are left unable to care for themselves”, says the report.
King’s Sierra Leone Partnership of King’s College in London are based at Sierra Leone’s main referral hospital, Connaught in Freetown. The study was done in collaboration with the Ebola Survivors Clinic at 34 Military Hospital in Freetown, as part of efforts “to better understand post-Ebola syndrome (PES) and improve on-going patient care following the 2014-2016 outbreak in West Africa” a release says.
In achieving this, adult patients with predetermined, significant symptoms like confusion, depression and psychosis, were identified from the patient notes of over 300 Ebola survivors.
34 patients were selected to attend a joint neuro-psychiatric clinic in 2016 where they underwent a full neurological examination, psychiatric screening and specialist investigations including brain scan imaging.
The most frequent neurological diagnosis was migranous headache, stroke, peripheral sensory neuropathy and focal peripheral nerve lesions, the release says.
Most survivors had co-existent mental health needs, with the most frequent psychiatric diagnoses being major depressive disorder and generalised anxiety disorder.
“We knew that a disease as severe as Ebola would leave survivors with major problems – however, it took me aback to see young and previously active people who had survived but were now unable to move half their bodies, or talk, or pick up their children”, says Dr Janet Scott, who leads the Post Ebola Syndrome project at University of Liverpool.
“Our findings support the need for larger, case-controlled studies. Post-Ebola syndrome is not going away, and those with the condition deserve better treatment”, she goes on.
Dr Patrick Howlett, from King’s College London, carried out this study. He said that they found that “a broad set of neurological and psychiatric symptoms, from minor to extremely severe and disabling” were present in Ebola survivors well over a year after discharge from hospital.
The release says Connaught Hospital continues to provide specialist neurological care for Ebola patients, but that there is “an urgent need” for specialist training for medical professionals to be able to meet the needs of the survivors.
Psychiatrist Dr Stephen Sevalie of the 34 Military Hospital, said “features of insomnia, depression and anxiety are common and our findings suggest that there is also a need for better understanding of the psychiatric and psychological consequences of Ebola Virus Disease”. He said that even though their Ebola Survivors Clinic included an onsite councillor, there were many more who would not have access to the needed specialist care.
(c) 2018 Politico Online
