Ebola Virus Discovered In Doctor's Eye After Discharge From Hospital

The Ebola virus has been found in the eye of an infected patient months after the cessation of the virus in the blood.This new discovery has testified what might have occurred in similar patients who have reported eye problems, of which duration is uncertain.

The patient is Dr Ian Crozier, an American physician who was diagnosed with Ebola in September 2014 whilst working for the World Health Organisation or WHO in Sierra Leone. He was brought to the Emory University Hospital's special Ebola unit in Atlanta for workup and treatment. After a month, he was discharged from the hospital, Ebola-free. He then developed increased intraocular pressure and inflammation in one eye after two months, which prompted him to return to the same hospital.

The 43-year-old patient was examined by Dr Steven Yeh, an ophthalmologist at Emory, who also decided to drain some fluid from Crozier’s eye to test for Ebola. It was later found that the discharge obtained was positive for Ebola virus. However, the tears and tissues surrounding the eye were not contaminated. According to Yeh, this finding suggests that patients who had been treated for Ebola should be monitored for eye impairments, even if they pose no public health risk with casual contact. In line with this, Dr Jay Varkey, an infectious specialist at Emory said that the staff who were involved in Crozier’s case wore personal protective equipment and performed self-assessment for Ebola symptoms that lasted for weeks.

WHO reported on Thursday that the cases of Ebola in Guinea and Sierra Leone went down to its all-time low for this year last week. Furthermore, Liberia, which has the highest incidence of mortality due to Ebola, has been declared Ebola-free on Saturday by WHO, unless new cases will surface.

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