WHO: Ebola disease - Controlling infection in health-care settings
April 24, 2025
Source: WHO
Photo / Image Source: Unsplash,
Care for survivors
All survivors, their partners and families should be shown respect, dignity and compassion. WHO does not recommend isolation of recovered patients whose blood has tested negative for Orthoebolavirus. Survivors might suffer from both clinical and psychological sequelae. WHO encourages affected countries to consider the establishment of care programme to alleviate sequelae, support to community reintegration, counselling and biological testing.
Orthoebolaviruses are known to persist in immune-privileged sites in some people who have recovered. These sites include the testicles, the inside of the eye and the brain. Relapse-symptomatic illness in the absence of re-infection in someone who has recovered from Ebola disease is rare but has been documented. Reasons for this phenomenon are not yet fully understood.
Ebola virus transmission via infected semen has been documented up to fifteen months after clinical recovery. To mitigate the risk of this transmission, a semen testing programme should be implemented to:
offer counselling to male survivors and their sexual partners to inform them of the potential risk and support them adhering to safer sex practices (including condom provision and good hand and personal hygiene);
offer monthly semen testing until they have had two consecutive negative test results; and
after two consecutive negative tests, survivors can safely resume normal sexual practices with minimized risk of virus transmission.
In the absence of a semen testing programme, male survivors should follow safer sex practices for 12 months.
Orthoebolavirus may persist in the placenta, amniotic fluid and fetus of women infected while pregnant, and in the breast milk of breastfeeding women who are infected with the virus. Survivor care programmes should encompass care for pregnant and breastfeeding women after their recovery.
e
How have you been impacted by COVID?
Share the wealth of health with your friends and family by sharing this article with 3 people today.
If this article was helpful to you, donate to the Shidonna Raven Garden and Cook E-Magazine Today. Thank you in advance.
Comments