Death rates were higher among those who were in hospital for longer, the study found, suggesting that patients who had more severe cases of Ebola may have yet higher post-disease risks. The findings show an urgent need for more investigation of the long-term effects of Ebola infection, the researchers said, especially since the number of Ebola survivors has risen significantly with two large epidemics in the past five years.
A continuing outbreak of Ebola in Democratic Republic of Congo has become the world's second largest in history since it began in August 2018. It has spread to infect almost 3,000 people in Congo so far, killing two-thirds of them. In the survivor study, published on Wednesday in the Lancet Infectious Diseases, scientists led by Ibrahima Socé Fall, an emergency response expert at the World Health Organization, followed 1,130 Guinean survivors of the 2013-16 outbreak.
Over a follow-up period of an average of 22 months, 59 deaths were reported, of which 37 were tentatively attributed to renal failure based on reports by family members of the symptoms suffered by their dead loved one, the researchers said. It was not possible to give the exact cause or date of death for many patients, they said, since there were few medical documents or autopsies available.