Gert van der Hoek
In Memoriam - Editor, Senior Moderator
01/03/16
The study shows that the Ebola virus “penetrates into the brain and causes lasting symptoms”, says neurologist Lauren Bowen from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) in the United States.
Bowen and her colleagues travelled to Liberia to examine a group of people who survived Ebola virus disease, at least six months after their initial infection, and then follow them up over time.
“Nearly all survivors had some neurologic[al] disability,” the researchers say, listing symptoms ranging from headache and muscle pain to memory loss and depression. Two-thirds of the group had abnormal eye movement and a third had muscle tremors and reflex problems, they write.
Out of 82 patients, two were suicidal and one had “active hallucinations”, say the researchers, who will present preliminary results of the study at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, in Canada in April.
These symptoms were “striking to all physicians involved and certainly surprising in young patients”, Bowen tells SciDev.Net. The average age of those examined was around 35.
- Virus penetrates into brain and causes lasting symptoms
These include headache, muscle pain, memory loss and depression - Further research will compare survivors with uninfected people
The study shows that the Ebola virus “penetrates into the brain and causes lasting symptoms”, says neurologist Lauren Bowen from the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) in the United States.
Bowen and her colleagues travelled to Liberia to examine a group of people who survived Ebola virus disease, at least six months after their initial infection, and then follow them up over time.
“Nearly all survivors had some neurologic[al] disability,” the researchers say, listing symptoms ranging from headache and muscle pain to memory loss and depression. Two-thirds of the group had abnormal eye movement and a third had muscle tremors and reflex problems, they write.
Out of 82 patients, two were suicidal and one had “active hallucinations”, say the researchers, who will present preliminary results of the study at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology, in Canada in April.
These symptoms were “striking to all physicians involved and certainly surprising in young patients”, Bowen tells SciDev.Net. The average age of those examined was around 35.