The health problems of West African residents who survived the Ebola virus infection are far from over, the World Health Organization (WHO) said.
In a briefing to the press in Sierra Leone, the health agency said that the survivors' state of health is, in fact, becoming an "emergency within an emergency," according to Fox News.
At least 25 percent could suffer from eye complications, such as impaired vision, inflammation - or worse - blindness, especially if the eyes are left unchecked and untreated, while 50 percent will suffering from joint pains that will hinder them from working or doing labor.
The exact cause of these complications is still undetermined and at the moment, doctors are only treating the symptoms, according to the New York Times.
Scientists suggest that these complications may be due to the virus still persisting in their systems, despite being cured from it.
As the problems linger, this may also increase the risk of survivors developing depression due to post traumatic stress disorder, the news outlet added.
"The world has never seen such a large number of survivors from an Ebola outbreak," said Anders Nordstrom, a representative from WHO to news outlets in the briefing. "We have 13,000 survivors in the three countries (Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone). This is new - both from a medical and from a societal point of view."
Specialists, however, are not surprised by this, as there are expected long-term impacts from a dangerous virus like Ebola, but there is decidedly a challenge in treating these patients due to the lack of doctors working in Ebola-stricken areas.
"To give an example of how poorly staffed they are: in Bellevue Hospital in New York in Manhattan there are more doctors staffed in that hospital than in all three of those countries combined," said Dr. Tim Jagatic of Doctors Without Borders via CBC.
The virus, which has been around since the '70s, had its worst plague in 2014, with over 27,000 people infected and 11,300 deaths. To date, there is still no known cure for Ebola, but vaccines and various treatment options are already in the testing stages.
