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Médecine de la Reproduction

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Ebola: current knowledge on impact of infection on maternal and reproductive health Volume 23, issue 2, Avril-Mai-Juin 2021

Authors
1 Programme d’urgence de l’Organisation mondiale de la santé, Genève, Suisse
2 Ministère de la santé, Kinshasa, République Démocratique du Congo
3 Institut national de la recherche biomédicale (INRB), Kinshasa, République Démocratique du Congo
4 Organisation mondiale de la santé, Goma, République Démocratique du Congo
* Tirés à part

Since its discovery in 1976, nearly 35,000 cases of Ebola virus disease (EVD) have been reported in 17 countries and including over 15,000 deaths. However, its impact on pregnant women, as well as its implications for reproductive health remain poorly understood. With the outbreaks in West Africa from 2014 to 2016 and those in the Democratic Republic of the Congo from 2018 to 2021, the care of pregnant women has improved. This shifted the paradigm that previously associated EVD with almost systematically fatal outcome for pregnant women and exposing health care workers to high risk of transmission. The documentation of EVD cases linked to viral persistence in some EVD survivors’ semen contributed to further studies on viral persistence in several body fluids of EVD survivors. If viral persistence is better known, the risk of transmission associated with this persistence remains difficult to assess. The objective of this mini review is to analyze the consequences of EVD on maternal and reproductive health and to present WHO guidelines and recommendations calling for improved care of EVD patients, during and after EVD.