Ebola: Complications

The following are the most important diseases or complications that may be contributed to by Ebola:

Respiratory system (J00-J99)

  • Pulmonary “capillary leak syndrome” (CLS) – serious disease originating in the lungs with generalized edema (water retention) caused by increased permeability of capillary vessels resulting in leakage of plasma and plasma proteins into the interstitium (interstitial space)

Eyes and eye appendages (H00-H59).

  • Ocular problems (50-60% of patients): uveitis (inflammation of the medial uvea), loss of vision.

Blood, blood-forming organs – immune system (D50-D90).

Endocrine, nutritional, and metabolic diseases (E00-E90).

Cardiovascular system (I00-I99)

Infectious and parasitic diseases (A00-B99).

  • Post-Ebola syndrome – survivors sometimes complain of arthralgia (joint pain), cephalgia (headache), abdominal pain (abdominal pain), vision and hearing loss, impotence, hemorrhage, and psychological symptoms as early as two weeks after discharge from the hospital; incidence up to 70%.
  • Sepsis (blood poisoning) with multiple organ failure (MOV; also: MODS: multiple organ dysfunction syndrome).

Liver, gallbladder, and bile ducts-pancreas (pancreas) (K70-K77; K80-K87).

Mouth, esophagus (esophagus), stomach, and intestines (K00-K67; K90-K93).

Ears – mastoid process (H60-H95)

  • Hearing loss* (6%)
  • Tinnitus* (ringing in the ears; 20 %)

Psyche – nervous system (F00-F99; G00-G99)

Symptoms and abnormal clinical and laboratory findings not elsewhere classified (R00-R99).

  • Abdominal pain* (abdominal pain).
  • Arthralgia* (joint pain)
  • Cephalgia* (headache)
  • Chronic pain*
  • Edema (water retention)

Genitourinary system (N00-N99)

Further

  • In the first year after illness, 5-fold increased mortality risk (risk of death) among Ebola survivors (age-standardized mortality rate 5.2; 95% confidence interval 4.0 to 6.8); thereafter, mortality was no longer increased.

* Post-Ebola syndrome