Ebola has been found inside the eyes of a patient months after the virus was gone from his blood.
So far Ebola has infected more than 26,000 people since December 2013 in West Africa. Some survivors of the virus have reported eye problems but how often they occur is not yet known. The virus has also been reported to be able to persist in semen for several months after the infection can no longer be found in a patients bloodstream.
The new report found the virus in the eye of Dr. Ian Crozier, a 43-year-old American physician diagnosed with Ebola in September while working with the World Health Organization in Sierra Leone.
Crozier was treated at Emory University Hospital's special Ebola unit in Atlanta and released in October when Ebola was no longer found in his blood. Two months later, he developed inflammation and very high blood pressure in one eye that caused swelling and potentially serious vision problems.
He returned to the hospital, where ophthalmologists Dr. Steven Yeh drained some of the fluid and had it tested for Ebola. The fluid in the eye did, in fact, contain the virus but the tissue around the eye and the tears did not.
According to Yeh, Crozier has not yet fully recovered from his vision problems but continues to improve.
Dr. Jay Varkey, an Emory infectious disease specialist, said those involved in Crozier's care wore recommended protective gear and monitored themselves for Ebola symptoms for several weeks afterward as a precaution.
This latest case of Ebola in the eyes was a topic for discussion at an Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology conference in Denver on Thursday, and the New England Journal of Medicine published their account online.
On Thursday, the World Health Organization said that the number of cases of Ebola reported in Guinea and Sierra Leone dropped last week to its lowest total this years. Liberia, which has had to endure the most deaths from the outbreak of the virus, which current stands at more than 4,700, plans on Saturday to declare the outbreak in the country to be over unless new cases are discovered before then.
The most recent outbreak of Ebola is the largest in history, affecting multiple countries across West Africa. To imported cases, including one that resulted in death, and two locally acquired cases in health care workers were reported in the United States. The CDC and its partners are taking steps to prevent additional Ebola cases in the United States.
