The Psychological Distress Of Ebola Survivors

Sorrow, Tears, and desperation after Ebola in Africa

Contracting Ebola disease is associated with difficult challenges and after cure, the survivor passes through extreme social, economic consequences and psychological distress, as they struggle to live in a society no one wants to accept them as normal human beings.

The World Health Organization has determined that a virus can remain in semen for up to seven weeks after recovery. Survivors are believed to be immune from the strain of the virus with which they contracted and can care for other patients with the same strain.

But it is not clear whether such a person is immune from other Ebola strains, and how long such immunity remains. As in most viral infections, patients who recovered after Ebola have antibodies in their blood that can fight this virus.

Therefore, their blood is a valuable albeit ambiguous in the eyes of the people a medicinal product for those who have caught this infection. One of the most recognizable people cured of Ebola is Kent Brantly, who donated four liters of his own blood to other patients.

The plasma of his blood, which contains antibodies, is separated from the red blood cells, and as a result, convalescent serum is obtained, which can then be transfused to patients. It is hoped that antibodies in the serum enhance the human immune response, attacking viruses and giving the body the opportunity for recovery.

But this method of treatment, like all methods of treating Ebola, is far from ideal. To begin with, it should be said that scientists do not even know how it acts. In addition, the serum can be transfused only to those people whose blood is compatible with the blood of the donor, and today it is not clear how long the effect of immunity can last.

Confusion is also caused by the fact that there are several different Ebola strains. Thus, there is no guarantee that a person who has recovered from a fever with one strain will be immune from the others.

Nancy Writebol survived Ebola fever because she was urgently sent back to Atlanta immediately after she contracted the virus. Science magazine asked her if she thought about returning. Writebol said, “I read about this and talked about it with the doctors from Emory. My doctors at the hospital do not know exactly how long immunity is maintained.”

“This question has not been studied. I read that even if a patient who has survived a fever is willing and able to assist and care for Ebola patients, because of the existence of numerous strains of the virus, he should, and he even has to work in personal protective equipment without relying on his immunity. ”

Survivors of this disease are of particular interest to scientists, say, to those who create the drug ZMapp, because, as they hope, then they will be able to synthesize antibodies with the expectation of creating a medicine. But even more incomprehensible is the situation with people who have contracted Ebola, but they did not have any symptoms.

After the outbreaks in Uganda in the late 1990s, scientists took blood from several people who were in close contact with Ebola patients for analysis and found markers in some of them indicating that they are carriers of the disease. However, clinically they were completely healthy, and they had no symptoms of the disease.

In a letter this week in the journal Lancet, the scientists described these non-detectable symptoms of the patients and hoped that by identifying people with innate immunity, they would be able to contain the epidemic until the researchers developed drugs and treatments.

In 2010, the French scientific organization IRD published the results of its research, reporting that 15.3 percent of the population of Gabon may be immune from Ebola. “Ultimately, if we find out that a significant part of the population in epidemic-affected regions is immune against Ebola, we can save lives,” said Lancet magazine author Steve Bellan in a press release.

“If we are able to reliably identify such people, they will be able to assist in containing the disease, and this will provide protection against the effects of Ebola for those who do not have immunity.” We will not have to wait until the vaccine appears - using the help of people with immunity, we will be able to restrain the spread of the disease. ”

Until the reliable and reliable identification of people with natural immunity is still very far, however, Bellan and his colleagues hope that by studying the current epidemic and searching for people who do not detect the symptoms of the disease, they will be able to save human lives in the future.

Do we have to believe all these scientific studies surrounding an Ebola survivor in Africa? Ricardo Veronesi, Professor Emeritus, Faculty of Medicine, at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, once said about the Aids biological weapon that “What seems improbable or impossible in major cities of the first world, turns out to be very possible in the third world.”

“This holds true for the probable mechanical transmission of the retroviruses, including HIV, by arthropods, and for the different cofactors prevalent in the third world and absent in the first world.”

Protest against the stigma behind Ebola
Can Ebola biological weapon be tested in Britain, Canada, Australia, Japan, America, Holland, Belgium, France etc? Not at all, that can be but it is possible in any African country because poverty and the lack of development on the African continent are blamed for the medical crimes the US government commits in Africa and till today, some people believe that poverty is the source of all diseases in Africa, including Aids and Ebola.

We, therefore, need serious African leaders to rule and save the continent. The one we have now are just catalysts speeding up the use of Africans as guinea pigs for experimentation, while the medical doctors claim to look for the right medicine to cure Ebola survivors in Africa.

After discharged Ebola survivors are not free and can't even live a normal life again. The society rejects them and nobody wants to get closer to them. This can be prevented. In fact, it is time for African leaders with one voice to shout "Enough is enough," and if they want Africans to beg them before they react, we will do it.

"African leaders we beg you, show that you care about us because we are also human beings."