My memory loss got worse after Ebola, says Ssempijja

While forgetfulness may not automatically translate to severe health complications, the worry of having to be reminded of simple things is a challenge for Mr Lawrence Ssempijja, an Ebola Virus Disease survivor. 
Ssempijja, 42, a resident of Kijjaguzo Village in Madudu Sub-county, Mubende District, is married and the couple has three children. 

While he is happily resettled and back to his normal duties that involve farming and brickmaking, Ssempijja battles memory loss as he forgets several things that he has been working on. Sometimes he forgets statements he made less than two hours ago.

While he believes that forgetting is generally normal, he says the rate at which he forgets very simple things has more than doubled since he recovered from Ebola and got discharged from the treatment unit at Mubende Regional Referral Hospital on October 6, 2022.
“When you have to be reminded about very simple things all the time, you get depressed. I always believed that over-forgetting was for young children and not adults. I don’t know how this problem can be overcome,” he says.

In an interview with this paper while at his brickmaking ground in Kijjaguzo Village, Ssempijja listed four life plans, including having a better job that is not as stressful as brickmaking, in the near future. Shortly after the interview which lasted about 45 minutes, he could not recall two of the plans. When reminded about them, he said they are among several of his future plans.
He says the problem is more challenging when he forgets where he keeps his panga and hoe which he uses in his garden.

“My wife is quick to remind me because she is aware of this problem and does not want me to get stressed after looking for the same tools that I had kept away just a short while ago. I am worried about the memory loss trend,” Ssempijja says.
He says he informed the health teams at the Ebola Survivors’ Clinic about the issue and they assured him that he will overcome it.
 “I got some tablets and received counselling from the health teams. I was advised not to get worried about the memory loss challenge but be active and avoid loneliness,” he says.

He adds: “Part of my challenge is getting worried about the life challenges. The counsellors advised me to get plenty of sleep and accept the life challenges as normal. But a man cannot get plenty of sleep when the family members need to get the basics.”
Apart from the memory loss issue, Ssempijja says he also easily gets tired, even after just a simple task.  

When the government announced the outbreak of Ebola on September 20, 2022 in Mubende District, the epicentre of the outbreak was at Madudu Sub-county where the index case and first fatality case resided. 
Ssempijja and residents of the area interacted a lot with the family of the deceased even before the government announced the outbreak.

“This family had already lost two other members. Other residents had died in the village from what people at the time believed to be witchcraft. Through my movements when I attended the different burials, it’s likely that I came into contact with this deadly virus,” he says.

Ebola
Ssempijja is quick to reveal that when he got sick, he did not think about the Ebola Virus Disease since he could not recall being in close contact with the deceased persons. 

“It is possible that the Ebola Virus Disease was in our area earlier than what the government and health teams believed. I felt a fever and went for medication at the clinic in Ngabano Village but I did not get better. This was during the third week of September 2022,” he says.

He adds: “I lost appetite for food and became very weak. Because I had started developing the Ebola symptoms including diarrhoea and vomiting. The health teams arranged for my transfer to Mubende hospital where I was diagnosed with the disease.”
Unlike other diseases, Ssempijja says Ebola is very traumatising and can kill a patient within hours if not detected at the earliest stage. 

“At the patient ward, all the patients were fighting for their lives. I noticed that I had to force myself to drink some juice after spending two days without eating food. My body had become dehydrated and I had lost weight. Luckily the fruits, drinks and food were in plenty,” he recalls.
When he regained some strength after five days of admission, Ssempijja started worrying about his wife and children back home. Because he had not communicated with them, he thought that they were infected with the Ebola virus and were admitted elsewhere. 

He worried that some of them could have died since many people had been reported dead in Madudu Sub-county. He was only relieved when he asked a nurse to help link him with his family members. 
“I thought that because I had witnessed several patients die at the ward, my turn would soon come. I wanted to have some communication with my wife and children before I die. The chances of survival for some of the patients were few,” he says.

When Ssempijja was finally informed that his family was fine and that none of them was sick, he gained the motivation to follow all the instructions given by the health teams. 
On October 4, 2022, nurses at the facility told Ssempijja that he would soon go home. He was informed that the nurses were only waiting for confirmation tests from the sample taken to the laboratory. An earlier sample had shown that he was free from the Ebola Virus Disease.

“On October 6, 2022, I was among the four patients discharged from the Ebola treatment unit by a team of health officials who included the Health minister Dr Jane Ruth Aceng. I was given new clothes and a startup kit because the basic items that I had used at the hospital had to be destroyed,” he recalls.