Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever (EHF) is a deadly disease caused due to the Ebola Virus. This disease's effects can vary from patient to patient like from mild illness to fatal end. The symptoms of EHF differ from patient to patient and thus the disease is considered to be obscure for diagnosis.

However, during the initial stages of Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever, the symptoms can be misunderstood as symptoms of malaria. So people go for diagnosis only after the virus starts multiplying, that is at a later stage. The disease is generally characterized by the sudden rise in fever, headache, and intense weakness.

As said before the symptoms differ from patient to patient. In general the symptoms show their ugly faces within a timeframe. This timeframe starts from few days after the infection to few weeks of infection. Within the first few days, most patients show symptoms of high fever, muscle aches, headache, stomach pain, fatigue and diarrhea. On the other hand, some patients show symptoms of hiccups, sore throat, rash, red and itchy eyes, bloody vomit and bloody diarrhea.

Within one week to a limit of 2 weeks most patients show symptoms of shock, chest pain, hypotension, acute renal failure, progressive prostration, hepatic failure and death. Nevertheless some patients show symptoms of blindness and bleeding. Some patients may exhibit both External as well as internal bleeding. Commonly when tested, the patients might exhibit results having low counts of white blood cells and platelets and high count of liver enzymes.

The worst case of Ebola was detected for a person in 2000 in Northern Uganda. He suffered from the initial symptoms for about a week. But then later on, he suffered from- bleeding from eyes, ears and nose, gastrointestinal bleeding, genital swelling and eye inflammation. His body was full of rashes and during the end of second week he was in a state of delirium which resulted in a shock to death. On his death it was detected that his blood cell numbers were in tact and that he did not die due to blood loss.

The most important aspect is that the fatality rate of the disease is very high. It is also found that, at the time of death the victims tend to have possessed an insignificant immune response to the virus. In some cases, even multi-organ function failure occurs. Patients appear with symptoms that can resemble cholera. These symptoms are deep-set eyes, expressionless faces, and extreme lethargy which make them appear like ghosts. EHF has an incubation period of around 2-21 days. The mortality rate of EHF is 72% which speaks about the impact the disease can create.

Thus the only way to reduce the mortality rate of the disease is to take proper precautions and consult a doctor immediately in the early stages. With research going on in the fields of drugs and proper vaccines we hope to find a solution to this deadly disease. By doing so, we can crop the ugly face of the disease.