Categories: News

Majority of Sierra Leone Ebola Survivors Lose Eye Sight, Struggle with Joint Pain

Ebola survivor losing her eyesight.

More than a year after the Ebola outbreak struck in Sierra Leone, the majority of Ebola survivors are now faced with health and mental challenges that threaten their livelihoods.

SEE ALSO: Ebola Guinea Study Finds Group of Women Who Are Immune to Disease

While Ebola survivors in Sierra Leone are indeed relieved to have survived the worst Ebola epidemic in history, where of the more than 14,000 who were infected, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control, nearly 4,000 succumbed to the disease in the West African nation, a number of challenges are cropping up, proving that the fight isn’t over.

According to Doctors Without Borders, 80 percent of survivors in Sierra Leone are struggling to manage joint pain and fatigue.

An even more worrisome post-Ebola complication, though, is the loss of eyesight: Ebola can remain in the eyeball liquid of survivors after recovery, making eyes both painful and blind.

Then there is the psychological hurdle: With so many survivors living their daily lives without loved ones, being a survivor is bittersweet.

In the below video, one woman describes life without her three brothers while another shares her experience of trying to reclaim her eyesight:

SEE ALSO: Glover & Akintola To Star in ’93 Days,’ Nollywood Film on Nigeria Conquering Ebola

Abena Agyeman-Fisher

Abena Agyeman-Fisher is the Editor-in-Chief of Face2Face Africa. Most recently, she worked for Interactive One as the Senior Editor of NewsOne, she worked for AOL as the News Programming Manager of Black Voices, which later became HuffPo Black Voices, and for the New York Times Company as an Associate Health Editor. Abena, a Spelman College graduate, has been published in Al Jazeera, the Daily Beast, New Jersey’s The Star-Ledger, the Grio, BlackVoices, West Orange Patch, About.com, the Source, Vibe, Vibe Vixen, Jane, and Upscale Magazines. She has interviewed top celebrities, icons, and politicians, such as First Lady Michelle Obama, Senior Advisor to the President Valerie Jarrett, Civil Rights activist and diplomat Andrew Young, comedian Bill Cosby, Grammy Award-winning singer Jill Scott, actress and singer Queen Latifah, Olympic Gold winner Cullen Jones, international supermodel Alek Wek, and five-division world champion boxer Floyd Mayweather. Most recently, she served as the First Lady’s press reporter during President Barack Obama’s U.S.-Africa Summit, Young African Leaders Institute event, and the 2013 presidential trip to Senegal, Johannesburg, Cape Town, and Tanzania. Abena is also a 2015 International Women's Media Foundation Africa Great Lakes Fellow, where she reported on women candidates and Chinese sweatshops in Tanzania for CNN and Refinery29.

View Comments

  • YEAH! THIS IS THE WORK OF THE EUROPEANS JUST TO WIPE OUT THE AFRICAN CONTINENT! AND IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN! THEY SHOULD WAITE WHAT IS COMING IS FOR THEM!THEY WILL RATHER DIED LIKE ANIMALS ANS NON OF THEM WILL SURVIVE!!!

  • Courtesy of American medication. What did those guys expect? With a laboratory ebola, did those people really think life was just going to be normal and happily after?
    Firstly, now they have a permanent ebola in the region ; they will continue having recurring cases and several resistant strain s are yet to develop
    .

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