• Yves-Marie Pers, Mamadou Saliou Sow, Bernard Taverne, Laura March, Suzanne Izard, Jean François Étard, Moumié Barry, Abdoulaye Touré, and Eric Delaporte.
• Clinical Immunology and Osteoarticular Diseases Therapeutic Unit, Lapeyronie University Hospital, Montpellier, France.
• Rheumatology (Oxford). 2017 Dec 1; 56 (12): 2068-2072.

ObjectivePrevious studies show that arthralgia is the most common symptom experienced by Ebola virus disease (EVD) survivors. Nevertheless, specific analyses of rheumatological sequelea are still lacking.MethodsThe Postebogui study is a prospective, multicentre cohort aiming to evaluate the long-term outcomes of EVD survivors infected during the 2014-15 outbreak in Guinea. Of the 216 participants enrolled in the study in October 2015, 44 patients with arthralgia/myalgia underwent a physical examination by a rheumatologist (the Eborheum cohort). Data were collected using a standardized questionnaire.ResultsIn the Eborheum cohort, 61% of patients were female, the median age was 31.1 years, and the median time from Ebola Treatment Centre discharge was 8.8 months. Pain manifestation started after Ebola infection in all but one patient. Patients had mainly both mechanical and inflammatory pain (45%) and low back pain (77%). All patients reported pain in at least one peripheral joint. Pain in large joints was more frequently reported than in small joints (73 vs 41%). Oligo- and polyarticular presentations were similar, with symmetrical pain distribution. Furthermore, 36 patients had at least one painful 18-tender point count, most of whom reported extensive pain (n = 19) and symmetrical distribution (91%). Diagnoses were mainly non-specific musculoskeletal disorders (59%) and mechanical back pain (52%). No polyarthritis was observed. We found a higher percentage of depressed patients compared with the remaining Postebogui group (42 vs 11%; P < 0.001).ConclusionResults from the study come from the first complete rheumatological examination of a cohort of EVD survivors, nearly 9 months after Ebola Treatment Centre discharge. Importantly, we found that patients with arthralgia/myalgia included in the Eborheum cohort were more likely to experience depression than survivors not reporting these symptoms, highlighting the impact of pain symptoms among survivors.© The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Society for Rheumatology. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com

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