Welcome to DU!
The truly grassroots left-of-center political community where regular people, not algorithms, drive the discussions and set the standards.
Join the community:
Create a free account
Support DU (and get rid of ads!):
Become a Star Member
Latest Breaking News
General Discussion
The DU Lounge
All Forums
Issue Forums
Culture Forums
Alliance Forums
Region Forums
Support Forums
Help & Search
Ebola's Legacy: Children With Cataracts
Source: New York Times
Ebola’s Legacy: Children With Cataracts
Cataracts usually afflict the old, but doctors in Africa have been shocked to find them in Ebola survivors as young as 5.
By DENISE GRADY OCT. 19, 2017
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — Hoisted onto the operating table by a nurse, Aminata Conteh, a spunky 8-year old, crossed her skinny ankles jauntily and held stock-still as doctors numbed her eye and then pierced it with a needle to withdraw a sample of fluid.
Two years ago, Ebola nearly took Aminata’s life. Now, complications from it are threatening her sight.
She came with her mother to an eye hospital here in late July, hoping for surgery to remove a dense cataract that had clouded the lens of her right eye, erasing most of its vision.
Cataracts usually afflict the old, not the young, but doctors have been shocked to find them in Ebola survivors as young as 5. And for reasons that no one understands, some of those children have the toughest, thickest cataracts that eye surgeons have encountered, along with scarring deep inside the eye.
-snip-
Cataracts usually afflict the old, but doctors in Africa have been shocked to find them in Ebola survivors as young as 5.
By DENISE GRADY OCT. 19, 2017
FREETOWN, Sierra Leone — Hoisted onto the operating table by a nurse, Aminata Conteh, a spunky 8-year old, crossed her skinny ankles jauntily and held stock-still as doctors numbed her eye and then pierced it with a needle to withdraw a sample of fluid.
Two years ago, Ebola nearly took Aminata’s life. Now, complications from it are threatening her sight.
She came with her mother to an eye hospital here in late July, hoping for surgery to remove a dense cataract that had clouded the lens of her right eye, erasing most of its vision.
Cataracts usually afflict the old, not the young, but doctors have been shocked to find them in Ebola survivors as young as 5. And for reasons that no one understands, some of those children have the toughest, thickest cataracts that eye surgeons have encountered, along with scarring deep inside the eye.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/19/health/ebola-survivors-cataracts.html