Friday 8 May 2015

Ebola Found Lurking In 'Cured' Doctor's Eye; Changed His Eye From Blue To Green


An American doctor who was flown back to the US to be treated for Ebola last year and declared free of the virus was later found to have the disease lurking in his eyeball.
Dr Ian Crozier told the New York Times he experienced a piercing pain in his left eye and impaired vision about two months after his release from hospital in October.
His eye even began to lose its blue colour and turned bright green.
After a number of tests, doctors were stunned when they stuck a needle in his eye and removed some fluid, which tested positive for the virus.
Dr Ian Crozier
"It felt almost personal that the virus could be in my eye without me knowing it," Dr Crozier, 44, told the Times.
Physicians used steroids and an experimental antiviral drug taken in pill form to treat the infection.
Over the next few months Dr Crozier's vision returned and his left eye turned blue again.
He contracted the disease while working in Sierra Leone, and was critically ill when admitted in September to Emory Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia.
Emory said in a statement that the patient was not at risk of spreading the virus from his eye because samples from tears and the outer eye membrane tested negative.
Steven Yeh, associate professor of ophthalmology at Emory University School of Medicine, said the case underscored the importance of eye check-ups for Ebola patients declared free of the virus.
More than 10,000 people have died of Ebola. 

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