Dr. Ian Crozier Shares an Ebola Survivor's Story
As an infectious disease physician, Dr. Ian Crozier lives to take care of some of the sickest patients in the world. That's what led him to Sierra Leone in West Africa in 2014, during the height of the worst Ebola outbreak ever. That outbreak would eventually take the lives of thousands of men, women, children and healthcare workers, killing 67 percent of those infected with the disease.
It was there, while working day and night tending to the sick, that he became infected with the deadly virus. In his case, he was airlifted back to the United States for treatment, in what he now jokingly calls "my first ride in a private jet."
Once at Emory Hospital in Atlanta, his illness progressed and he experienced multiple organ failure that left him touch and go for a full six weeks. He was given at least two experimental therapies that were developed in the labs at UTMB during his hospital stay and before the virus finally cleared his system.
As Crozier explained to a spellbound audience of more than 500 people at the University of Texas Medical Branch, clearing the virus was not the end of his story, nor is it the end of the story for the thousands of Ebola survivors in Africa.
In his case, Dr. Crozier developed sight-threatening uveitis (eye inflammation), with the Ebola virus detectable in his eye for several months after his release from the hospital. At one point, his eye changed color -- going from blue to green -- and he developed thick cataracts that left him unable to see. These post-virus sequelae are also problems for survivors in Africa, something Dr. Crozier is working to address along with an Emory University eye team.
As perhaps one of the few survivors in the world to have been so gravely ill and recovered, Dr. Crozier's experience post-disease made him an incredibly important research subject, with his case informing researchers around the world who are working on vaccines and other therapies to combat the disease.
While one might think that becoming infected with a deadly disease would scare you away from working with deathly ill patients, for Ian Crozier it was just the opposite. Just prior to coming to Galveston, he spent several weeks in the Democratic Republic of Congo where there is an going Ebola outbreak. There he focused on optimizing delivery of supportive care and using newly developed therapeutic tools.
Dr. Crozier is back in the US -- for now, working as chief medical officer at NIAID's Integrated Research Facility and working on advancing new therapeutics to provide bedside care for patients with Ebola and other high consequence diseases.