Ebola history and symptoms

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Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]; Associate Editor(s)-in-Chief: Michael Maddaleni, B.S.; Guillermo Rodriguez Nava, M.D. [2]

Overview

Ebola causes a variety of symptoms which may include fever, chills vomiting, diarrhea, generalized pain or malaise, and sometimes internal and external bleeding, that follow an incubation period of 2-21 days. These symptoms are common to all species of Ebola virus, but the different species may present with differences in the severity of symptoms.

The early symptoms of a VHF such as Ebola include high fever and headache. These are also symptoms of many infections seen at the health facility
Most patients who present with fever do not have a VHF. Their fever is more often caused by malaria, typhoid fever, dysentery,severe bacterial infection or other fever-producing illness usually seen in the area
When a patient presents with fever, exclude other causes of fever. For example, do a malaria smear or take a stool culture as soon as possible
- Treat the most likely cause of the fever according to the appropriate treatment guidelines
- If the fever continues after 3 days of recommended treatment, and if the patient shows evidence of bleeding or shock, consider a VHF
- Review the patient’s history for any contact with someone who was ill, with fever and bleeding or who died from an unexplained illness with these symptoms.
- If no other cause is found for the patient’s signs and symptoms, suspect a VHF. Begin VHF Isolation Precautions.^[1]
Fewer than 50 percent of patients will not develop any hemorrhage.
A history of contact with another infected individual should be elicited particularly in the setting of an outbreak.

Incubation period - duration approximately 2 - 21 days, followed by an abrupt onset of symptoms, which include:

Generally preceded by a short pseudoremission period, which lasts about 24 - 48 hours