Thousands of Ebola survivors experience serious medical complications

The chronic conditions experienced by patients who have recovered from Ebola virus disease have been described as an “emergency within an emergency.”

Daniel Bausch of the World Health Organization’s clinical care team, who was speaking at a telephone press conference in Sierra Leone, said that around half of the 13 000 people who had survived the infection were reporting joint pain. Bausch described the pain as so “serious and debilitating” that it could prevent people going to work and going about their daily lives.

“These are not rare problems: these are common problems,” he said. “It’s an emergency within an emergency,” he added.

About a quarter of …