Clinical features of viral haemorrhagic fevers

Common clinical features include:

• presentation as an unexplained influenza-like illness, requiring laboratory investigation to diagnose
• sudden onset of high fever, chills, headache, myalgia, arthralgia and conjunctivitis
• gastrointestinal disturbance including diarrhoea, nausea and vomiting, and anorexia.
• some conditions involve the CNS resulting in delirium, drowsiness which may progress to coma, and some occasional focal signs

In severe disease there is bleeding into the skin, mucous membranes and internal organs.

This group of diseases has a high mortality, with death most common in the second week from renal failure and circulatory collapse.