Ebola survivors face stigma

FOR STORY WEST AFRICA SURVIVING EBOLA - FILE-In this file photo taken on Monday, March 31, 2014, UNICEF health workers teach people about the Ebola virus and how to prevent infection, in Conakry, Guinea. The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has claimed some hundreds of lives, and is almost always fatal with horrific suffering including bursting blood vessels, there is no vaccine or known effective treatment, but it seems a handful of infected people have survived. However those who survive the horrors of the disease have to cope with being outcast by everybody, such is the fear people have of Ebola. (AP Photo/ Youssouf Bah, File)

The doctor has beaten the odds and survived Ebola, but he still has one more problem — the stigma of the deadly disease.

Even though he is completely healthy, people are afraid to come near him or to have anything to do with him.

For example, the man was supposed to give an interview on Guinean radio to describe his triumphant tale. But the station would not allow him into the studio.

The Ebola outbreak in West Africa has claimed more than 145 lives so far. More than 240 people, mostly in Guinea, are suspected of having caught the illness. There is no vaccine, no treatment and the disease is almost always fatal.

Unfortunately for the lucky few who survive, the stink of stigma lingers long after the virus has been purged from their bodies.