American doctor Rick Sacra survived Ebola. He's now immune to the virus and has been back to Liberia to work with other victims.
Health workers in protective gear at the Nongo Ebola treatment centre in Conakry, Guinea. Photo: AFP
The Ebola epidemic in West Africa was the largest and deadliest outbreak since its discovery in 1976.
Since the first confirmed case in March 2014, there have been more than 28,000 suspected, probable, or confirmed cases, with more than 11,000 deaths in six countries - Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, the United States and Mali.
It was an epidemic which killed five times more people than all other known Ebola outbreaks combined.
But what is it like to survive Ebola?
A follow-up survey of the survivors who were treated for the Ebola virus in the US, published last week in the New England Journal of Medicine, said they experienced a "wide constellation" of symptoms, involving many organ systems, for months after their successful treatment.
American doctor Rick Sacra was one of those survivors. As well as practising as a family physician in Boston, he has served as a missionary for evangelical Christian group SIM at ELWA Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia, since 1995.
Dr Sacra contracted the virus in September 2014, in Liberia, the country that was worst hit by the epidemic.
He has since recovered and been back to Liberia several times, most recently this month.
In the months following his release from Nebraska Medical Center, he dealt with a bad cough and blurry vision. They were the only lingering signs of the virus that ravaged his body for weeks.
"I've really been fine since about three months after my illness but I did have some complications, especially with my left eye," Dr. Sacra said. "I had to take steroid medication for about three months to calm that inflammation down and get the vision back."
He was also generally tired and had insomnia and aches for a couple of months, but counts himself as one of the lucky ones.
"I'm fully recovered... many of the other survivors continue to even have lingering effects even up to this point, like a year later."
Dr Sacra is now immune to Ebola, which can linger in people's bodies - especially the eyes - for a lot longer than other viruses.
"Of course all viruses do this kind of thing but Ebola seems to be even a little better at it than most of the other ones that do it, it seems to be able to hide out in different areas from the nervous system, and for longer periods than most other viruses."
Many people do recover fully, Dr. Sacra said.
But there have been reports in rare cases, of the the virus re-emerging.
People in Sierra Leone gathered at the iconic Cotton Tree in Freetown, to remember the lives lost to Ebola Photo: AFP
The World Health Organisation's (WHO) has been criticised for responsding too slowly to the Ebola outbreak, and since the outbreak and the aftermath, there have been suggestions there should be an emergency wing of WHO that has the capacity to respond immediately and declare an emergency.
Dr Sacra agreed with the idea
"Once it picked up again (in Liberia) in June of last year, it should've been immediately declared an emergency because it really picked up steam in June, and it did take until the first week of August - so there was a bit of a delay there, which was definitely a problem," Dr Sacra said. "But I think they've responded to that and we're all hoping that we can do better next time."
"Thankfully, there is a vaccine. That's the one good thing that's really come out of this horrible epidemic is that we now have a vaccine that seems to work. In fact we had a little cluster of three cases in November in Liberia that came out of nowhere, probably from somebody who was harbouring the virus somewhere - nobody knows quite exactly the mechanism of how it popped up again but it occurred in a family of somebody who had survived Ebola, but it was just three cases.
"But in response to that, they brought the vaccine - the one that's been tested in Guinea and Sierra Leone - and they brought that into Liberia and started offering it (to people suffering from it and health workers) and I'm hopeful that we won't have to face another outbreak like this one again."
Suffering Ebola wasn't like in the movies where people basically dissolve, Dr. Sacra said.
"It's just like a horrible stomach virus that just drags on and on and on. And then there's of course the concern, because once you figure out that that's probably what you've got, it became a matter for intense prayer."
Dr Sacra said he was optimistic that Ebola could now be controlled, especially as more research and studies were being conducted all the time.
"It's clear that the virus does like to persist and hang on, although rarely does that become a public health issue... there have been a few cases where a survivor has probably spread the virus to somebody else, but very small numbers. Especially when you consider that there's probably 20,000 survivors out there, and there have probably been two incidents, or three. So it's not a common occurence, but something we have to keep our eye on."
Listen to Rick Sacra on Nine to Noon:
