What disease does it cause?

The Ebola virus causes hemorrhagic Ebola fever with consumption coagulopathy and massive bleeding. Overall, this disease can be imagined as a strong intermittent fever with disturbed blood coagulation. As a result of this disturbed blood coagulation, there is massive bleeding into internal organs, but also into superficial skin layers.

This is due to a loss of blood platelets and coagulation factors as well as an injury to the blood vessel cells. As a result, the more liquid blood is able to leave the blood vessels. The diseased person bleeds to death internally, which leads to a reduced supply of blood to the organs and ultimately to multiple organ failure. In most cases, this is a death sentence for the diseased.

What are the symptoms of Ebola infection?

In the western industrialized countries, the travel history of a potentially ill person is a crucial element in making a correct diagnosis. Ebola-infected persons typically report from stays in Central or West Africa. The typical physical symptoms of the disease initially resemble those of a normal flu or influenza infection, with a very high fever (up to 41 degrees Celsius). In addition, those affected often suffer from it: A blood count – if carried out – would reveal moderately elevated signs of inflammation and, in advanced stages, a loss of platelets.

Muscle and joint pain
Painfully enlarged lymph nodes in the neck area
Headaches
Slight drops in blood pressure
Redness of mucous membranes and outer skin all over the body

Course of disease

As with all infections, the course of the disease begins with an incubation phase in which the pathogens can multiply in the body without causing symptoms. This usually lasts seven to nine days in Ebola. This is usually followed by conjunctivitis of the eye and reddening of the oral mucosa.

In this phase, fever also begins with temperatures of up to over 40 degrees Celsius. This fever typically increases and decreases over the next ten to twelve days. After the initial symptoms, there is a loss of thrombocytes, diarrhea, reddening of the skin and inflammation of the liver. Shortly afterwards, the clinical picture is completed by heavy bleeding into organs and the skin, the so-called hemorrhages.After the bleeding occurs, the fever drops again and the patient either survives the disease or has died previously due to the severe blood loss, which leads to multiple organ failure.