What are the symptoms of viral hemorrhagic fever illnesses?
Although symptoms vary for each specific virus, initial signs of VHF often include fever, rashes, body aches, headache and fatigue. Severely ill patients may also show signs of shock, bleeding and damage to the blood vessels in major organs including the liver, lungs, nervous system and, occasionally, the kidneys. Typically, symptoms develop within days but may not appear until several weeks after exposure. How are hemorrhagic fever viruses spread? Humans can be infected in several ways: • Contact with urine, fecal matter, saliva or other body excretions from infected rodents. • Contact with the bodies of dead infected animals. • Being bitten by infected mosquitoes or ticks. • Contact with animals that have been bitten by infected mosquitoes or ticks. • Close contact with infected people or their body fluids. Ebola, Marburg, Lassa fever, New World hemorrhagic fever, and Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever viruses can be spread from person-to-person. People can also be infected by touching
