1. Skip to content
  2. Skip to main menu
  3. Skip to more DW sites
Live TV
Latest audioLatest videos
In focus
German coalition collapseDonald TrumpCOP29

Supporting survivors

Adrian Kriesch / JPNovember 25, 2014

Ebola survivors are often stigmatized and discriminated against. Many discover that their friends no longer want anything to do with them and some even lose their jobs. This is unfair.

https://p.dw.com/p/1DpLX
Liberia Ebola Überlebende
Image: John Moore/Getty Images

DW Ebola Special - Supporting Survivors

A few days after the symptoms disappear, the patient is no longer infectious, although the virus can remain in semen several weeks after recovery. Ebola survivors should therefore use condoms for at least three months after their symptoms have cleared up.

Ebola survivors’ blood contains antibodies that protect them against reinfection with the virus and could also be used to help patients with the virus.

There is no need to avoid or ostracize Ebola survivors. They need support. They have suffered severe illness; many of them have lost family members to the virus. Society should help them as much as possible, not make their plight even worse.