Dr. Ian Crozier, 43, was diagnosed with the Ebola virus last September while working for the World Health Organization (WHO) in Sierra Leone. He was then repatriated to the United States for treatment and was discharged from Emory Hospital in Atlanta in October, apparently cured. But two months later, while recovering, the doctor showed up again at the Atlanta hospital with major vision problems. Dr. Steven Yeh, ophthalmologist, then took fluid from the anterior chamber of the eye to analyze it and discovered the presence of the Ebola virus.
Treated with corticosteroids
Many survivors of the virus develop headaches, eye problems or chronic pain. In Dr. Crozier’s case, it is uveitis, an inflammation of the inside of the eye. Besides a significant loss of his vision, the doctor’s iris changed color from blue to green ten days after the onset of symptoms. But, as researchers point out in the New England Journal of Medicine, cases of uveitis had already been declared in patients infected with the Marburg virus, close to Ebola. for Dr. Yeh, this indicates that survivors of Ebola infection should all seek treatment for possible eye contamination.
Dr. Ian Crozier underwent intensive treatment, based in particular on corticosteroids, and partially recovered his vision of the eye. His eye also returned to its normal color and as the virus was not present in the tears and the outer tissues of this eye, he did not represent a danger of contamination for his relatives.
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